Criminal Ingenuity With Massachusetts gun control laws reputedly among the toughest in the country, it's no surprise that a criminal technique to bypass the inconveniences those laws create has emerged there -- the community gun. Police are looking for a .40 caliber pistol used by various criminals over about seven years in unrelated shootings -- unrelated except for the firearm used, a semi-auto passed from one lawbreaker to the next, one of at least 11 such guns identified by law enforcement. Though technically inaccurate, The Boston Herald story documents the latest way criminals are avoiding the laws that make buying a gun so difficult for the law-abiding.