This is how I'd answer:
Question:
Wouldn't it be easier for a criminal to get a gun -- like, say, a Tech-9 -- if it were made legal? To say they would get them anyway is not a valid point. If they become legal, there will be more of them available to be gotten illegally by criminals, no?
Answer:
"Well, it is absolutely true that legal things are generally easier to get than illegal things are -- at least by the law abiding. 'Course, we might want to remember that illicit drugs have illegal for over 70 years, and it is not the least bit difficult for anyone who doesn't mind breaking the law to obtain illicit drugs.
However, if you'll permit me, I don't think that you are asking quite the question that you mean to ask. What I hear you saying - and correct me if I'm wrong - is 'If a specific gun (such as a Tech-9) is legal for law-abiding citizens to buy, won't criminals be more dangerous because they could get that gun too?'
That might or might not be true: It simply depends on whether there are alternatives that a criminal could choose that would accomplish the same thing that any particular gun would accomplish.
Let me ask you a question: There are about 280 million guns in America today. If there was a criminal who wanted to rob you personally, and came up and pointed a gun directly at you, would you be particular about what brand of gun it was? Do you know enough about guns to recognize one from another? Assuming that you were able to recognize that a criminal
wasn't holding a Tech-9 -- would you feel a lot safer, perhaps emboldened to take the not-a-Tech-9 gun away and beat him up?
If you'd be equally scared no matter what sort of gun a criminal chose to point at you, do you think it really matters very much to the criminal whether he can obtain a Tech-9, versus any other gun? After all, a gun is a very powerful and threatening symbol.
One of the usual reasons that criminals choose to carry guns rather than some other weapon is that chances are that merely showing a gun to someone will be enough to ensure compliance; criminals who carry knives or clubs quite often actually attack and injure their prey to show that they are serious, while criminals with guns generally do not. Incidentally, that's also why law-abiding citizens who carry guns for protection rarely have to actually fire them - usually just displaying them to a criminal is enough."
[Question: "But what about scary feature X??"]
Conclusion: 'Ya know, I agree with you that there are serious issues with violence in society, that I'm just as concerned about as you are. But I really hate when politicians deliberately misinform folks just to trick them into feeling insecure. I think it was HL Mencken who said, 'The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.'
Most people, if politicians made the same silly claims about cars that they made about guns would laugh them out of office. Can you imagine how you would laugh if a politician claimed that ordinary, law-abiding people couldn't buy certain cars, because they were actually evil "assault cars" that only criminals used, and that if we just made it impossible for criminals to buy these particular cars, then we'd all be lots safer because the criminals wouldn't be able to find other transportation alternatives that would work for them?
'Course they'd never
be that silly, because people would laugh at them. But fewer people know much about guns, so when they make the same kinds of arguments about guns, somehow it seems kinda' plausible. Sure, different guns have lots of different features, just like different cars, and trucks, and SUV's have lots of different features. And you know, autos in general are powerful tools that are just as dangerous as guns if one wished to kill someone, and are certainly worthy of being treated with respect.
But you know, no one tries to tell you, a law-abiding citizen, that you can't own a Ford SUV, or a truck with a V10 engine just because some criminal robbed a while store driving one, or because some psychopath ran over some pedestrians with one. Cause they know
that you know that it's the driver, not the car that determines whether the tool is used for good or for evil.
Dex