Do laws deter?

[Blackhawk2001]

How do you have consequences if you have no laws? You can't have B before A, somewhere along the line there has to be a law being broken before you can have consequences to fear. Again, you're technically correct in that people fear the consequences but there are no consequences without laws. You're missing the forest for the trees.

I am done with these two threads as I don't think anyone on either side is willing to find a common ground. I understand that we can impose penalties if people injure someone but I still support doing everything we can to discourage dangerous situations. I'm not talking about wrapping everyone in padding and outlawing pointy objects. I'm talking about basic things like speed limits, laws against drunk driving, etc. If you think that's what the founding fathers of our nation were fighting against then you misunderstand your history. Liberty does not equal doing whatever you want at the risk of innocent bystanders. No law will ever eliminate a problem completely, but it does deter a good enough portion of the population to make it worthwhile. Carry on...

The problem is where to draw the line between sensible regulation and nanny-state smothering. Once a lawyer gets hold of a law, common sense goes out the window.

 

[Richard47]

The "tough law" does not deter criminals, because they don't even know what the penalty is until they've been caught. What doe deter them is a good chance of being caught. They know it will suck if they're caught, and if they're not caught it won't even matter.