I have a 233-page book on my bookshelf titled the Federal Firearms Regulations Reference Guide, published by the ATF. You can find your own copy here. That’s 233 pages of dense print on 8 1/2 X 11 inch pages, dense print of federal statutes, regulations, forms, and other information related to firearms law. Roughly 110 pages of the book contain the federal statutes and regulations. The rest includes a variety of circulars, rulings, and even a 30-page, extremely helpful Q&A section–extremely helpful.
It’s worth pointing out that the book contains just federal law. But worry not, the ATF’s website also sports links to every state’s firearms laws. Lots and lots and lots of laws.
I tell you that to repeat this: We don’t lack laws. What we lack–too often–is enforcement. According the Kevin Williamson,
What’s missing is ordinary, unglamorous, labor-intensive law-enforcement and public-health work — i.e., the one thing no one employed by government will seriously contemplate and no politician answering to government workers and their unions will seriously consider. Instead: We complain about “straw buyers” but rarely prosecute them; some federal prosecutors refuse as a matter of publicly stated policy to take a straw-buyer case unless it is part of a larger (sexier) organized-crime investigation. Chicago manages to convict fewer than one in five of those arrested on weapons charges. A New York Times investigation found that about 90 percent of the killers identified in New York murder cases had prior criminal histories, often histories of violent crime. (About 70 percent of New York’s homicide victims also had prior criminal arrests.) On and on it goes: Ordinary crime and ordinary criminals, ordinary bureaucratic failure, and the occasional act of armed histrionics to keep the headlines churning.
Note that I wrote “too often” above. I didn’t write “always.” That’s because the ATF itself is actually rather busy enforcing federal law as pointed out at the following links, that enforcement often involving felons illegally in possession of firearms.
Operation Legend Results in 22 Defendants Charged with Various Federal Charges
Shreveport Man Convicted by Federal Jury Sentenced on Firearms Charge
Collin County Man Sentenced for Firearms Violation in Connection with Teen’s Death
St. Petersburg Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing a Machine Gun
Springfield Man Involved in Nightclub Shooting Sentenced to 15 Years for Illegal Firearm
I could go on, but you get the idea. There are laws. When they’re enforced, they get results. There are those who quibble with John Lott’s claim, “more guns less crime.” Nobody can quibble with “more enforcement, fewer baddies with guns.”
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