The slippery slope of lawmaking

Republicans by nature are supposed to be very wary of new laws. Most of the bad things in this country can be prosecuted under current law. However whenever something evil is brought to the limelight, some people feel we need a new law to show society how serious we are about that issue. Let’s see how a slippery slope begins. In 1994 Bill Clinton signed in to law the legislature written by Joe Biden known as The Violence Against Women Act. VAWA was hailed by NOW as "the greatest breakthrough in civil rights for women in nearly two decades." Since then everyone from ACLU to The Supreme Court have had negative things to say about this bill. But what could be bad about a bill that protects women from violent men? First it assumes guilt which is a violation of the constitution. Secondly it suspends law officers from using common sense. When someone calls 911 and reports domestic violence happening in a home, the police by law are no longer allowed to investigate. The man is arrested and placed in jail. The woman also has her freedom surrendered as she is shuttled off to a shelter. We already had laws to protect all citizens from beatings, rape, stalking etc. Those laws were not being enforced to the proper degree, so legislatures wrote a new law. You can read more about how this bill is negatively effecting the very people it was designed to support here or here

I’m not picking on this bill because it was written and passed by democrats. Bush had to re-sign it in to law twice, and there are still a lot of Americans who believe this is helping women. We can argue it’s benefits on a later date. But everyone should agree the law wasn’t written in the hopes of putting a rape victim in jail for 8 days till she agrees to testify. However, by law, that’s what happened.

Another unintended side effect of the law, the arrest rate of women is up over 400% and they now make up 35% of domestic violence arrests. And this is still considered a “good law”.

In England their good intentions have really lead them down a slippery slope The past 7 days their papers have featured stories like children no longer allowed to play with toys at Doctors offices.

Taxpayers now spend 160 million dollar a year on a new group whose biggest contribution so far seems to be suggesting a law that will outlaw sandwiches, and has fined a man 600 bucks for throwing out his lunch wrapper without a waste management license.

And the coast guard can no longer shoot flares because that’s too dangerous. This fella demonstrates flare replacement technology.

So before you rush off to write new laws, check the old ones. Like Thomas Jefferson said “The execution of laws is more important than the making”.

Or my favorite, from Roman statesman Marcus Cicero; “The more laws, the less justice”.