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Originally Posted by MTK
The fact bulletproof backpacks even exist is pretty sad if you ask me. I'd hope we could all agree on that.
What bad laws are you talking about exactly? We've had a good 20 years of school shootings going back to Columbine, just wondering what "bad laws" we've seen go on the books in response.
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I guess the other viewpoint would be that for 20 years there have been changes and yet I think we all agree the shootings are getting worse.
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Popular Science In the 12 months after the Columbine shooting, lawmakers proposed more than 800 new bills having to do with guns. Some promoted gun control—for example, beefing up background checks—while others promoted gun ownership rights—for example, protecting the rights of gun owners who cross state lines with weapons. About 10 percent of those bills passed
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That means that about 80 laws were passed in the year after Columbine. Yet they didn't curb or reduce the violence. As you said we have had 20 years since to show that laws by themselves aren't the answer. We have had background checks that screen law abiding citizens since 2008 yet we continue to see mass shootings. Is it a bad law, not necessarily, but it's a chicken little law because it cries out fear instead of responsibility. We have laws to make it illegal for bad people to have guns, and as Chico and BaltimoreSkins agreed the penalty (barring extreme exceptions) should be tough. But adding levels of laws and bureaucracy simply increase government without a corresponding increase in security.
Further, many if not all the mass shootings could have been prevented with the laws already on the books
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When I asked her opinion, Schildkraut said she thinks that upon closer examination, the new bills turn out to be redundant. "We do have so many great pieces of legislation in place, both for gun rights and for gun control," she says. "I think it's more important to really work on enforcing what you have before you rush out more pieces that are not going to be enforced."
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Bad laws can be redundant laws that make more bureacratic work for police officers, they can be laws that have placebo effects but do more to remove rights then enhance safety, and they often have smiley face names to make it more emotionally tied to victims of 1 off incidents then addressing underlying facts and causes.