More Laws Constitute More Violence

And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgment of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun signs the song
--The Who

Ron Paul reflects on the aftermath of the Newtown massacre. The Left's emotional calls for more gun control were balanced by the Right's emotional calls for mandatory armed security in schools.

Because government is legalized force, more laws constitute more violence. RP observes that real solutions rest in peaceful cooperation rather than in involuntary force.

Toward the end of his missive, he discusses the tradeoff between freedom and security, a topic of many pages on this site.

"Do we really believe government can provide total security? Do we want to involuntarily commit every disaffected, disturbed, or alienated person who fantasizes about violence? Of can we accept that liberty is more important than the illusion of state-provided security? Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens' lives. We shouldn't settle on substituting one type of violence for another. Government's role is to protect liberty, not to pursue unobtainable safety."

Indeed, the American design is one that favors liberty over security--as famously punctuated by Patrick Henry.