Fact(less) Argument

here are lots of arguments I really can’t stand… but one of my favorites (for lack of a better term) is the ever popular (and gaining popularity amongst lunatics people everywhere): Right we should make stricter gun laws, because criminals always follow the law. 

This… always makes my head hurt for twenty different reasons. Not the least of which is… then why should we have laws at all? Clearly law breakers don’t care, and you don’t think it’ll matter so then why should anything be a law? We don’t we just live in total anarchy? I mean do these people really think that if there were no laws, society would just cary on like normal?

You keep living in that fantasy world of yours.

I would love to live under the delusion that even without laws and oversight people’s moral compass would keep them from doing amoral acts, but if Wall Street has taught us anything it’s that, people without laws and oversight can get away with murder and when there’s no one to stop them they will. They’ve already proven that in spite of the backlash they’re more than willing to sink the country yet again into economic depression if it gets them a few extra billion.

Now sure, there will always be people who even without laws would (probably) not do certain things that are considered wrong. But think about it this way… if you grew up not knowing that stealing was wrong, and there was never a law to stop you, how would you know it was?

Laws don’t in themselves stop crime necessarily, they aren’t magic, but they provide consequences when someone does commit a crime, hopefully to show other would-be lawbreakers that if you try this, there are consequences, and you will be severely punished and maybe, just maybe, someone else will think twice before trying it.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the media makes mass murderers into celebrities as a matter of routine. Most people couldn’t name any of the victims of a mass shooting, but the killer? Always. Then we write books about them, make movies and t.v. shows about them or what they did, and the public will eat it up like candy. I know, because I’m not innocent. I was glued to CNN Headline for months during the whole Casey Anthony debacle, I was fascinated and disgusted and horrified and I couldn’t turn it off to save my life. Like most people I was horrified when she got off, but the point is, everybody knows her name. She may or may not (depending on your opinion) have killed her child, and regardless she was all but a celebrity.