Prohibition

I've been watching this interesting series on NPT on the Prohibition. Several things caught my attention. For one, I learned that politicians were just as corrupt, if not worse,  in the '20's and '30's as they are now. Many of those that voted for the prohibition were actually involved with the bootlegging of alcohol during the prohibition period. Another thing I learned is that the income tax came out of the prohibition. Before prohibition approximately 1/3 of government income came from the taxation of alcohol. The only way the nation wide banning of alcohol could come about is if some other source of income took it's place. Enter the federal income tax.
One interesting point is that prohibition didn't help anything. It actually made things worse. Not only was there a big black market for alcohol where anyone could acquire it violent crime increased as well.
So back to today, why do some people think banning guns will do any good? It would only open up a black market for illegal guns and only illegal people would have those guns. As a commentator said on one of the episodes of the series, once the government bans something there will always be someone ready to step up and offer that thing illegally on the side.