Recently I got into a debate about what to do about the 4 women and 3 children who are killed each day by a male whom lives with them.
The other person proposed a constitutional amendment (and later laws) to eliminate the abuse to this "historically vulnerable" demographic.
I objected to new law since every instance of domestic abuse is already illegal.
My main points were:
Social change is all that is required to eliminate most of it.
I will not submit to anything which infringes on my liberties because of the actions of others.
I gave examples of things where my liberty is impaired because of other people breaking the law.
I posited that woman need to take some responsibility for their own safety. That included arming themselves with a firearm and actually pressing charges when the police are there for the domestic disturbance call.
I am fed up with being punished for the actions of others!
I did some checking up on domestic violence.
Those 4 deaths a day? Not that long ago that was 16.
Those four murderers every day? 60.3 MILLION men did not kill their wives that same day.
A new law to stop that crime? Murder is already illegal.
Assault and battery is already illegal; even if it's your wife.
But 7 deaths a day from domestic abuse in a population of 300 million people, where 120.6 million are married is below the level of statistical noise. To "fix" this would cost a lot.
I am familiar with how government operates here. They will add one of their favorite words to the laws, "mandatory". It will become mandatory that someone be arrested and charged when the police respond to a domestic disturbance. A conviction will carry a mandatory minimum sentence.
It will be run by the same people who issue restraining orders. Baseless restraining orders have done how much damage to innocent people because of spite and revenge?
I'm really sorry here, but 7 deaths a day is not a huge problem that requires a constitutional amendment or additional law to correct.
There's 534 deaths from "preventable" medical mistakes everyday. But we don't care because patients are not "historically vulnerable".
There are nearly 117 traffic fatalities every day; despite cars being one of the most tightly regulated items commonly owned.
There's 33 murders every day that must not matter because they weren't caused by a spouse or significant other.
All of these statistics have something in common besides someone died. All of those numbers are much smaller than they were even 10 years ago. I would say that society is already applying its fixes to the problem without adding more laws. It's tragic, but you will never get any of those numbers to read zero.
I'd like to know where you got these numbers so that I can use them in an argument.
ReplyDeleteGoogled "X Deaths US" and then read a whole bunch of links...
ReplyDeleteI am lazy about sourcing my blog.
"...It will become mandatory that someone be arrested and charged when the police respond to a domestic disturbance."
ReplyDeleteIt already is in several states. And the Violence Against Women Act (which apparently make already-illegal acts MORE illegal) provides federal $$$ to help defray the costs.