The subject of this mornings tragedy in Las Vegas is a deeply cutting issue in Americas history with gun violence and the way we deal with senseless massacres. The truth of the matter is that no matter what laws are passed, in the US or anywhere else, universal access to firearms is inevitable. Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed, the infamous cyberpunk firm that originally released the 3D printed ghost gun, just recently announced plans to upgrade their automated milling machines to create 1911 and Glock handguns out of unfinished blocks of aluminum, all parts of which can be bought unscrupulously online, with no serial number and no background check. The machines are already capable of milling AR-15 and AR-10 rifles, and the technology is constantly progressing. Just as Bitcoin and its descendants have created a digital, online, black market alternative to cash worldwide, subverting the need for government backed fiat, ghost guns will subvert the laws imposed by government authority until everyone who wants a firearm will be able to access one.

Government enforcement of laws will always be equally challenged by those who wish to humiliate the authority of those in power. The truth is, there will never be effective gun control, not in the United States, not in France, not in Sudan or Turkey or Australia or North Korea. The government cannot impose restrictions on the sick and diluted actions that mad men will take when they want to indiscriminately kill innocent people. The government will do nothing to change that, just as laws against murder do not stop murder, it merely punishes the offender. Laws against drugs do not stop the flow of drugs, it merely punishes the drug user. Universal access to contraband and malicious behavior will always be a reality that government will never be able to stop.

The blood has yet to dry and already the tragedy has been politicized by those demanding government intervention and detractors like me. If you look to the government for answers, don’t expect a solution. Whatever answer, if there is one, to the problem of mad men who inflict tragedies indiscriminately upon others will likely come from somewhere that precedes government completely. They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Can we expect the answers to societal problems such as violence to be solved by the State? It is a delusion to believe so, another law will not prevent violence, history shows that society evolved and shaped culture with it as well as our attitudes towards violence. It is our responsibility to seek out solutions to violence, not government, and that may be the most difficult reality to face in the wake of this tragedy, that government cannot prevent violence.