There is one part of this discussion that I disagree with and feel has been one of the main reasons we have too much government today. This is "The less self-government and discipline people have the more government is required". I don't believe that we have to enact more laws because undisciplined ones keep breaking the ones we have. This relates to many issues one of which is instituting more gun control because the criminals keep using them illegally and are not being prosecuted. We should be going after the lawbreakers not establishing more laws.(posted 8959 days ago)To put it in simpler terms, if you had a son and daughter and the daughter kept staying out after curfew, would you lower the curfew time for both children because the daughter was breaking the rules? No, most parents would be better about imposing punishment on the rulebreaker not the innocent son who is following the rules.
The same should be true for our laws. There is a need for some laws to keep a civilized society, but society should be insisting on harsher penalties and enforcement of the current laws rather than asking for more laws. Adding more laws does nothing to ensure discipline. It only serves to punish the law abiding.
This is true for almost any issue not just gun control. It is just a little more obvious with gun control. I would use as another example the law that they want to pass making all televisions be equipped with a child lock out feature. This is just a law that is being enacted for lax parents. They should be monitoring what their children are watching. If they can't be trusted to watch what they are allowed to, they should have to watch tv in the living room instead of their bedroom where they can be supervised.
Our society wants to make excuses for people that don't take responsibility for their actions and then make laws that they think will solve the problem when it is only hurting the law-abiding citizen. We need to stop this viscious cycle. Start punishing the law breakers. No plea bargains, no early release, no parole. Do the crime. Do the time. Period.