A recent study revealed what every Second Amendment advocate already knows: Bad guys don’t get their guns through legal channels.

In a study conducted by the Journal of Preventative Medicine titled “Sources of guns to dangerous people: What we learn by asking them,” 99 criminals incarcerated in Chicago’s Cook County jail explained where they got their firearms. Not surprisingly, less than 1.5 percent of them were from a gun store.

While the sample size is small and specific to one area, it represents the modus operandi of criminals worldwide. According to the study, the majority of the criminals got their guns from a person they knew, or from a friend of a friend.

In other words, universal background checks wouldn’t have stopped them from acquiring their firearms or committing a crime. In fact, no law would have done that, because criminals by definition do not obey the law.

Here’s a breakdown of exactly where the criminals got their firearms:

(Photo: Cook County Jail Survey)

The participants in the study were quite candid and revealed some of the internal workings of how they illegally acquire firearms.

“All they need is one person who got a gun card in the ‘hood’ and everybody got one,” said one inmate.

“Six out of 10 times, people go out of state and bring them back,” said another inmate.

According to one of the participants, those selected by the gang leaders to bring guns in from out of state use the “train and bring them back, can be up to five or six guns depending on how much risk they want to take.”

In short, the study shows that background checks just don’t affect those who choose not to obey the law.

Does something need to be done about the continued mass shootings throughout our country? Yes. Do we need to disarm our law-abiding citizens by imposing stricter gun laws that only they will obey? Absolutely not.

(This article was a submission from freelance writer Brent Rogers)