In an article posted on The New Republic  from 2015, writer Pheobe Maltz Bovy calls for an outright ban on all firearms. In the article, she also advocates taking them away from people who currently own them as well. Not only is this a bad idea, it’s just not possible.

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“Ban guns! Not just gun violence. Not just certain guns. Not just already-technically-illegal guns. All of them.”

Yes- as if somehow they were all going to magically disappear. Not to point out the obvious, but guns would still be around if they got banned. And unfortunately, it will be the law-abiding citizens who suffer. While most law-abiding citizens would probably turn over their guns, criminals aren’t going to do that. Why would they? By holding on to their guns, they have a distinct advantage over everyone else who followed the law and aren’t armed anymore. Law-abiding citizens and their families would be the ones who suffer because their effective deterrent and defense would be gone. People aren’t going to just hand their guns over if they got banned.

In the article in question, Bovy calls for guns to be “taken” from current gun owners. I would love to know how she thinks we should go about doing this, since she didn’t offer any actual approaches to how this ban is going to be enforced in the article. I’m going to assume that “taken” means “taken by force,” since it’s clear why the majority of gun owners wouldn’t go turn in their guns at the police station upon request. In that case, what are you going to do? Do a nation-wide raid of people’s houses if they don’t willingly give them over? It’s not gonna happen. Not only would raiding people’s houses and confiscating weapons like that be a gross misstep of government powers, it would just pin the People up against the government and send the nation spiraling into instability and cause a massive dilemma.

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On an economic level, if we ban guns, the demand for guns will still exist. Just because they will then be illegal does not miraculously make them go away and solve gun violence. When you suddenly outlaw a significant good that is in demand, that does not take them out of demand. It’s like drugs; by drugs being illegal, that doesn’t stop the demand for them. It just means people are going to deal them illegally.

If you’d ban guns, I believe it’s likely that the same thing would happen. You’d be taking money out of the pockets of business owners and funding illegal organizations. If legal gun businesses weren’t able to sell guns anymore, I’m sure there would be plenty of crime rings who would be more than happy to pick up where the industry left off, sort of like how the Mafia took over the alcohol distribution industry during Prohibition in the 1920s and used it to get filthy rich and spread corruption to some of the highest levels of society. Good times…

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Illegal arms dealers would be stupid not to take advantage of the opportunity to dominate a market of selling arms to Americans; they would make a fortune.

Guns are too deeply ingrained in American culture for the government to do anything about it now. You can’t get rid of them at this point. The process of confiscating all guns would be a nightmare that would take decades and waste endless government resources that could be better spent doing other more helpful things than enforcing a ban that will probably fail in the long run just like the War on Drugs did. To people who think banning guns is a viable solution to gun violence: how do you think we should go about doing that? If someone has a better idea of how we are going to go about getting rid of guns, I’d love to hear it because I don’t think a feasible method exists. Not only do I think it would be horribly unwise to ban guns, I think it’s just not going to happen. If we are going to continue debating real solutions regarding gun control, we should keep it at regulations.

If you liked/disliked this post, as always, leave a comment! I realized while writing on this issue that this may not have been a great topic to pick, considering most people are only in favor of more gun regulations, and not actually banning all guns. Either way, y’all know my thoughts on this now. I’ll try to pick something better for next week relating to the gun topic. If you have an idea, or want to know my thoughts on something, feel free to suggest an idea for a post in the comments. Or if you’re just interested in having a discussion on something I’ve written about, feel free to bring it up in the comments or in person!