The left is constantly trying to make it look like gun control is the only answer to lowering the rate of gun crimes and mass shootings. That's why it came as bad news this week when a new study blew this notion out of the water.

A yearlong study from the leftwing group The Trace found that criminals stealing firearms from gun owners is actually what's fuelling gun crimes across America.

A yearlong investigation by The Trace and more than a dozen NBC TV stations identified more than 23,000 stolen firearms recovered by police between 2010 and 2016 — the vast majority connected with crimes. That tally, based on an analysis of police records from hundreds of jurisdictions, includes more than 1,500 carjackings and kidnappings, armed robberies at stores and banks, sexual assaults and murders, and other violent acts committed in cities from coast to coast. “The impact of gun theft is quite clear,” said Frank Occhipinti, deputy chief of the firearms operations division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It is devastating our communities.” Thefts from gun stores have commanded much of the media and legislative attention in recent years, spurred by stories about burglars ramming cars through storefronts and carting away duffel bags full of rifles and handguns. But the great majority of guns stolen each year in the United States are taken from everyday owners.

This obliterates progressives' claim that making it more difficult to buy guns will stop mass shootings. In fact, their stricter gun control laws will do nothing to lower gun crime rates because "bad guys" will always find a way to get their hands on weapons regardless of what the law is.

This has been proven in Democrat-run cities like Chicago, where gun crime rates have continued to soar despite the strict gun laws that are in place. Last week, Chicago surpassed 600 homicides in 2017. Criminals simply continued to get their hands on guns through non-legal means and continued to use them to commit crimes.

In the end, stricter gun control laws will only punish the law-abiding gun owners who have no intention of committing crimes. While criminals will always find a way to get weapons, those who follow the law will be left unable to defend themselves if stricter gun control laws will be put in place. It's naive of the left to think that gun control laws will magically solve the issue of shootings in America, when in reality this issue is far more complex than that.