That's counterintuitive. That suggests that laws to curb something will result in more of that activity, i.e. that laws and penalties have no effect on human behavior. That simply defies common sense and observed phenomena.
What defies common sense to me is where you got that from what I wrote?
That is not at all what I wrote, suggested or implied.
What I was trying to communicate is this, when a gov’t bans something or makes it illegal, they do not eliminate it. Making some “thing†illegal will not make that “thing†undesirable or unobtainable. All it does is drive that “thing†or activity underground and for the most part, out of their control.
I will give you a perfect example of something I have personally experienced and that IMO, demonstrates how in ineffective banning, as opposed to regulating something really is.
When I was in HS (mid 80’s), I could go to school any day of the week and buy just about any kind of drug I wanted. Marijuana, Cocaine, LSD you name it but do you know what the hardest thing for me to get my hands on? Beer!
(Just so you don’t jump to any false assumptions, I did not go to some inner city school with a higher drop out than graduation rate. I grew up in an upper middle class town where the majority of students graduated and went on to college.)
Yes, Alcohol and Drugs are both illegal for a minors to buy or posses so what’s the difference? Alcohol is legal to sell by licensed individuals to legally aged adults. It makes no financial sense for person making a living legally selling alcohol legally to risk their license and livelihood by selling to a minor.
On the other hand, it is 100% against the law for anybody to own or sell illegal narcotics. Still people become dealers all the time because for them, the financial gain outweighs the risk. Seeing how money is the motivation, these people do not generally get picky about who they sell to. I saw first hand how the governments attempt to control the sale of illegal drugs actually made it easier for a minor to buy.
As an adult, illegal drugs would not be
easier then alcohol for me to buy but I’m pretty sure it still wouldn’t be too hard for me to buy either if I so desired.
If I recall correctly, they estimate there are ~200 million guns in the US. My guess is much less then 5% of those guns are illegally owned or sold and even a smaller percentage is brought into the country illegally. Why? Because most people can buy and own guns legally just as easily and inexpensively as they can illegally. So, in most cases, there is very little incentive or reward to justify the risk of being caught.
Now, let pretend the gov’t was able to enact a complete ban on all firearms. History has shown that the story would drastically change. Do you really think that everybody would turn in all of their guns? You can bet the thousands, if not millions of US citizens, most of whom have never broken a law in their life will withhold at least one firearm. So, where the gov’t currently regulates roughly 95% of the firearms in this country, they would be down to what? 50-80%. In effect, they would have actually managed to lose control over a fairly large number of firearms. You would also have to consider the drastic increase in the illegal importation and black market that such a new law would create.
To answer you comment above, no laws and penalties do not typically change anybody’s
desire to do or have some “thing†but it may alter their
willingness to. Making some “thing†illegal may be enough to cause a number of people to restrain from doing\having “it†but some people will choose not to. Those people will become criminals\law breakers for what may be the first time in their life.
There are also a small percentage of people who wouldn’t have cared less one way or the other but will suddenly become interested in “it†because “it†is now illegal. Look how many people rushed out to buy AR’s and AK’s 10 years ago when the government told us we couldn’t have them anymore. It is human nature to want what you can not have. Just ask Adam and Eve.