"...much of life is just beyond the reach of the law."

Why New Laws Are an Ineffective Response to Tragedies - Reason.com: "In the case of the Isla Vista murders, we've seen calls for tighter gun control (even though California already has more restrictive laws than most states), mental health screening, and implications that misogynistic websites should somehow be reined-in. And something about Seth Rogen movies. Maybe a waiting period?

...you have to catch lawbreakers to incarcerate them, and others then have to see that breaking the law carries a high risk of being caught. And they have to care about being caught. This can turn politicians' efforts weirdly futile. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) took the opportunity of the Isla Vista murders to push for background checks (which the murderer, Elliot Rodger, passed), bans on "assault weapons" (which Elliot Rodger didn't use), and limits on magazine capacity (which already exist in California, so Rodger used legal 10-round magazines) in order to deter spree kiilers who, like Rodger, generally don't intend to survive their crimes. Blumenthal and company would probably argue that laws more tightly restricting guns would deter others from providing firearms to the likes of Elliot Rodger. But Blumenthal's own state of Connecticut is currently enjoying mass defiance of its new restrictions on so-called assault weapons, with tens of thousands of people refusing to comply.

Which shouldn't be a revelation to anybody who has followed the history of gun laws, drug laws, and prohibitions of various sorts on things that many people want to do, despite the preferences of the powers that be. Instead of deterring violations, such laws create opportunities for black market profit and mass scofflawry. That's because there is minimal chance of any individual violator being caught since those individuals are engaged in violations in private, or with other willing participants. And if there's damned little chance of being caught, there's absolutely no certainty of punishment to act as a deterrent...

Politicians like to propose ever-tighter laws, because that's really all they have to offer. But much of life is just beyond the reach of the law. "

Death by government: "To recap: The government sent Isaac Sims man to fight a pointless war waged on a collection of false premises. When he returned, Veterans Affairs refused to treat the part of him that the war had broken. Left untreated, his post-traumatic stress disorder caused him to lash out. So the local government sent a SWAT team, which killed him."