Last year, we saw yet another knee-jerk reaction by liberals to the supposed "gun problem."  The Dems seized on the mass killing that occurred in Las Vegas as an opportunity to push for more restrictive gun laws and an outright ban on firearm accessories.

By year's end, cooler heads had prevailed, and most of this legislation did not make it through.  On the contrary, December of 2017 saw the House approving the concealed carry reciprocity bill that will allow for citizens with concealed carry permits in one state to carry outside that state.

While that might sound like good news for law-abiding gun owners, it's not all wine and roses just yet.  The bill will have to pass the Senate and then go before the president before it becomes law, and the libs are already wringing their hands, insisting that it violates states' individual rights to pass and enforce their own laws.

This month, Senate Democrats were at it again, proposing a gun control package that would "build" on the SAFE Act, a New York State regulation that New York's governor has already called the toughest gun control law in the United States.

These desperate attempts at doing away with the Second Amendment and manipulating the law to suit the liberal agenda are obviously nothing new.  We saw all of it after Sandy Hook; we saw it after Aurora; and we saw it, yet again, after Sutherland Springs.

To hear liberals speak, you would think mass shootings occurred every day in this country.  Of course, they don't.  You would also think that by enforcing stronger background checks, we could curb gun-related violence on the streets of our cities.  We can't.

The reason should be obvious to anyone who doesn't take a myopic view.  The vast majority of criminal activity involving guns in this country involves guns that were illegally obtained.  These are guns that have not been registered or purchased through legal channels.

Indeed, one of the largest sources of guns used in crimes is unlicensed street dealers who get their guns through illegal transactions with shoddy dealers, "straw purchases," or gun theft.  In other words, they are bought and sold on the black market.  And it's all too fitting that the market is black, because that is the one area of gun violence that the Dems refuse to address.

Black Americans are constantly bloodying the streets with illegal guns.  For these urban outlaws, no gun bill will stop them from committing violent acts.  Black homicides soared this past year while black football players took a knee and brayed about black lives mattering, a sentiment that seems backward when one considers that none of them is talking about the far more overwhelming number of black deaths occurring among their own race.

Just this month alone, seven black Americans in the crime-infested city of Chicago have been killed, and 25 have been shot and wounded.  The year has practically just begun, and already Chicago has seen 43 gun deaths.

The statistics speak for themselves: black men are 13 times more likely to be shot and killed with guns than white men.  What is never discussed is who is killing black Americans.  The answer is other black Americans.

When these numbers balloon out of control, the left points its finger at the police officers, lumping all of law enforcement in with the few rotten apples who are guilty of opening fire on unarmed people.  This turns a blind eye to the damage done by our country's Democratic leaders.

After New York Mayor Bill de Blasio dramatically reduced the NYPD's ability to stop and frisk, the city saw a significant increase in homicide and gun violence.  These are the facts that are rarely mentioned by the lamestream media, but they are facts nevertheless.

While liberal bureaucrats try their damnedest to ban AR-15 furniture and accessories like the notorious bump stocks used in the Vegas shooting, a larger problem is being ignored.

As world-renowned scholar William Julius Wilson wrote in his blog for Brookings, "[t]he nation's consciousness has been raised by the repeated acts of police brutality against blacks.  But the problem of public space violence – seen in the extraordinary distress, trauma[,] and pain many poor inner-city families experience following the killing of a family member or close relative – also deserves our special attention."

This raises the question: if a black man can acknowledge that blacks are killing blacks, why can't the liberal establishment?

While this question will no doubt go unanswered by political talking heads, the reality remains incontrovertible.  In 2013, firearm deaths accounted for more than 11% of all years of potential life lost among the black population.

Types of gun deaths also vary drastically.  Seventy-seven percent of white gun deaths have been found to be suicides, whereas 82% of black gun deaths are homicides.  By now, it should be obvious that gun control does little to effectively control violent offenders in the black community.

The social justice warriors will speak about social inequality, but there is a staggering amount of evidence to suggest that young minorities in impoverished communities have more opportunities than ever before.

In Los Angeles, the Heart of L.A. provides underserved youth with top-notch programs in academics, athletics, and the arts.

New York City offers a wide array of youth services, including college programs and programs through which teenagers can learn valuable job skills.  Still, it's easier for many in the ghetto to live off government checks or pick up a hot gun than to actually earn an honest wage.

It's no secret why many black Americans do not have a credit score to speak of.  A whopping 47% of black Americans do not have access to a credit card, either because they don't own anything or because they simply don't have a legitimate income to open a bank account.

Again, the real gun problem comes down to lifestyle.  These criminals would rather rob people at gunpoint or join a violent gang than make an honest living.

For this reason alone, we are not likely to see an end to inner-city gun violence any time soon.  And no amount of legislation is going to change that, if for no other reason than that criminals aren't about to start legally obtaining firearms or registering them in their respective states.

Sam Bocetta is a freelance journalist specializing in U.S. diplomacy and national security, with emphases on technology trends in cyberwarfare, cyberdefense, and cryptography. Currently working as a part-time cybersecurity coordinator at AssignYourWriter.co.uk.