Shocking news from David French at The National Review: a survey of Cook County, Illinois, prisoners reveals that they obtained guns mostly from their social network of personal connections, rarely by direct purchase from a gun store or theft (not that prisoners would admit to stealing them).

Other common arrangements include sharing guns and holding guns for others.

"In other words," French writes,

"criminals aren’t walking into gun shops or gun shows but rather seeking weapons from people they know and trust — people who know full well that they’re giving or selling a gun to someone who can’t legally own it...

The idea that they’ll suddenly stop transferring or selling these guns if they’re also required to run a background check is almost comical. As usual, [Instapundit] Glenn Reynolds is right. “It’s as if all the “anti crime” gun-control proposals we hear were mostly meant to make it harder for ordinary, law-abiding people to buy guns.”

Indeed.