Oh, I don’t doubt that’s the case.
On the other hand, there are close to 400 million privately owned guns in the U.S., so that leaves the potential for a fair amount of monkey business. 
Yeah it’s like saying less than .0001% of all salmonella bacteria has ever made somebody ill. That doesn’t mean you should go ahead and serve raw chicken.
There are two forms of tomatoes: Determinate and indeterminate. Determinate grow as a bush and benefit from a cage. Indeterminate grow as vines and benefit from stakes or overhead suspension systems. I guess you could stake a determinate variety, but it would be a pain (we sometimes have to stake the cages because the tomato bushes get very heavy and we don’t want them falling over in a wind storm). Indeterminates in a cage doesn’t make sense.
At least this is what I have learned from my wife who grows amazing tomatoes (20-30 plants per year) and has worked on an organic farm. I’m the hired help that does a lot of the manual work and do have hands on experience 
The relevant math is not hard to do. Here ya go:
Exhibit 1:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/11575915/Small_Arms_Survey_civilian_gun_ownership_by_country.png)
Exhibit 2:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8319829/gun_homicides_developed_countries.0.jpg)
Yeah, the constant refrain that there’s lots of guns in people’s basements or collections that aren’t harming anyone is a scarce comfort to the guns that are in the hands of the criminal, the negligent, or of children, that do cause harm.
Just for some reference, I pulled these all from the front pages of various, local media outlets in the area. I don’t know what it looks like in other areas, but this is what I see on a nearly daily basis. None of this is remotely out of the ordinary.
approximately 15 spent shell casings directly in front of Kwik Trip
The victim, a 28-year-old man from Kenosha, suffered gunshot wounds to both legs
.
.
A 19-year-old was shot in the head, but was able to tell police what happened
Inside, they found the body of 30-year-old
,
two handguns were recovered
.
.
https://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/medical-examiner-responds-to-homicide-near-44th-and-meinecke
.
A gun was recovered during the crash investigation.
,
Cool! You made my day.
On the flip side, there are already SO many guns out there that restricting sales would be a drop in the bucket.
And of course, you have all the “accidental” incidents.
And it’s unlikely that any of these guns would be traced back to the FFL that sold them. But if it were, and they told @pkbites that the gun he sold was used in the death of a toddler, he would probably smile as he recounted the profit he made off the sale.
True. Any one thing that is done to counter the epidemic of gun violence would be a drop in the bucket, but that’s not a reason to not take action. It will be a long, slow process whose success will result from the cumulative effect of many different measures. Australia implemented a gun buyback program after the Port Arther massacre in 1996, and although there are conflicting reports about the results, there is reason to believe that this one law alone (the National Firearms Act) was successful:
The average firearm suicide rate in Australia in the seven years after the bill declined by 57 percent compared with the seven years prior. The average firearm homicide rate went down by about 42 percent.
Right now, in Canada, a prohibition on all sales, purchases, or transfers of handguns is in effect except by exempted individuals under license, and Bill C-21, when passed, will authorize a buyback program for assault-style weapons which have been banned since 2020. Little by little, through attrition, buybacks, increased regulation, and tougher penalties, the number of guns is being reduced, with the priority on the most dangerous ones, and their presence is becoming increasingly socially unacceptable. The US, sadly, appears to be moving in the opposite direction, with gun nuts becoming increasingly intransigent, even as mass shootings become so shockingly commonplace that only the worst of them even make the news any more.
But it’s not how many guns exist, it’s how hard it is to get one, and who can get one. That there are a whole bunch of guns squirreled away in a few basements doesn’t change the nature of the guns that are on the streets.
If guns were a bit harder to get, then people may respect them more. They may make it harder for them to steal, or they may keep them out of reach of children, or they may just charge more when they sell them to an unknown individual who expresses interest in their guns.
Raising the price of guns on the black market would make a huge difference in gun crime, and it wouldn’t take all that much restriction in supply to accomplish.
Or it might just be “nobody can prove in court that I personally broke any laws, so my actions are ethical.”
It’s the kind of reasoning that lets some folks sleep at night, and then laugh on the way to the bank in the morning.
I’m copying this from another post where it looks like I was replying to you as well.
If we magically banned guns today, there would absolutely still be people with guns and people killed with guns because the government couldn’t possibly sweep up all the guns. However, I’m of the opinion that, should guns be banned right now, the current stockpile of privately owned guns (legally or otherwise) will start to dwindle over time. Suddenly the cost of a black market gun will increase and will continue to increase as guns are harder to come by (same for ammo). A gun will be something people don’t want to show off (or use) since it could make them a target for someone that wants to steal it.
After a few years (maybe longer since they’ll be no gun ranges to practice at and people aren’t going to play with them in their backyard) and the guns will need some maintenance/repairs. Repair parts won’t exist in the regular marketplace and black market parts will dry up soon as well. Sure, you’ll be able to get them overseas and a few people will be able to make them at home, but overall, they’ll just get harder and harder to come by and more and more expensive.
So, it might not stop violence today, but what happens 10 or 20 or 100 years after the ban?
This process could likely be accelerated by very stiff penalties for possession of a gun (or repair parts or ammo) as well as government sponsored, no questions asked, buyback programs.
So, no, it’s not going to stop gun violence today, but overtime, I think it will.
Also, guns last a long time, but ammunition gets used up. I think we should be looking at controls on purchasing and distributing ammunition.
Yes, you can cast your own bullets for an old shotgun. But that’s not what people use for mass murderers, nor suicides. Restricting the manufacture, sale, and distribution of ammunition could go a long way to reducing gun deaths in the US.
Oh, and large magazines should be outlawed outside of the military and perhaps law enforcement and well-regulated shooting ranges.
100% agreed, except I don’t think it needs an outright ban, just reasonable regulations. Guns are just so easy and cheap to get.
Yes, but the fact that it will take a long time seems to be an excuse to never start, unfortunately.
Isn’t pkbites part of the thin blue line? Then I would expect that if any firearm used in a crime were traced back to him that the paperwork would be mysteriously lost.
A similar idea saw the Freepers trying to drive me out of the country 25 years ago except I wasn’t in it so hard cheese for them. But it seems the most obvious solution.
Why? And why would it matter if it were sold legally, which it sounds to me pkbites is good about? I have no reason not to believe he doesn’t run an honest business. I know gun store owners. It’s not the line of work I’d choose, and I’m for greater gun control, but what’s the problem if they are running it according to the book?
You are seriously asking if the police would as a matter of “professional courtesy” disappear evidence that one of their own sold a gun used in a crime?