Opinion: New laws won't solve problems

Senseless aggression toward innocent victims enrages me. No matter who is harmed or who commits the act. But to intentionally target children? Rage doesn’t begin to describe what I feel.

Are you ready for some hard truth? Some of you are; those who aren’t should probably read the comics instead.

You’ll never stop crime with new legislation and harsher enforcement. You’ll never even reduce crime that way.

In fact, even if you imagine this tactic would prevent some crimes, you’ll have to ignore all the crimes it unintentionally causes. Directly. Which it will do. No legislation only affects the bad guys. It affects those who generally try to obey the rules much more ... which has a negative effect.

What good is making up some legislation that prevents one crime if it causes five other crimes that wouldn’t have happened otherwise? “If it saves one life” is the mantra of activists who wear blinders.

Knee jerk legislation giving government added power, created under the stress of tragedy, is never a good idea. It always works out badly, having devastating unintended consequences down the line.

We are seeing the unintended consequences of that kind of legislation happen now, while politicians and activists are theatrically trying to place the blame where it doesn’t belong.

People can’t be forced to be good or responsible. You can’t improve society through authoritarian tyranny. Turning society into a prison is never the right thing to do, even if you imagine safety will be the result.

All that will happen is you’ll contribute to making things worse for everyone, not better.

Yet, it’s what politicians want to do and it’s what the loudest activists demand from them. It’s not “common sense” in any sense of the phrase, but anti-liberty politicians hope you won’t realize it.

What you can do is to decide to be responsible. Decide to be part of the solution, regardless of what rules are imposed on you.

Don’t comply. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about refusing to go along with your own enslavement. Understanding, respecting, and exercising liberty doesn’t make you a bad person.

What they want to do to you -- what they intend to do to you -- makes them the bad guys. Their political acts will guarantee crimes like this will continue to happen again and again. You know it. Don’t let them forget it and show them you aren’t fooled by their easy and popular lies.

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

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