What is the purpose of having a law? Is it to punish people for doing something most in a society does not condone? Is it to protect some from others? Is it to prevent people from doing something? Or all those things.

Many of our laws are intended to do those things. But do they work? If not enforced they cannot work. And if enough people ignore them they become irrelevant.

The law says the speed limit on Highway 19/41 Bypass is 55 in most areas. If you obey it, you will be passed by almost every other car on the road. And you are very unlikely to be punished unless you speed far above the legal limit. So that law is irrelevant most of the time. People decide to ignore the law since it is not strictly enforced.

What about gun laws? They often are passed over the objections of many in society. They never protect anyone, because anyone willing to shoot another person is not going to obey any gun law because the punishment is much higher for assault or murder. Only law-abiding citizens are affected by gun laws.

Gun laws are often not enforced, especially for the rich or famous. An article in the Griffin Daily News on March 10 told how some rapper named “Waka Flocka Flame” was found not guilty of having a handgun in his carry-on baq at the Atlanta airport. Although law-enforcement tried to enforce the law, a jury found him not guilty after a four day trial.

What do you think would have happened to you or I if we got caught doing that? Waka’s lawyer told the press what happened, according to the article. So if you can afford a high priced lawyer you can often get away with a crime.

Almost every arrest report in the Griffin Daily News, when listing the charges, include “possession of a gun by a felon,” something that has been against the law for years. But do you ever hear of any criminal actually being punished for that crime? That charge is almost always dropped or pleaded away somehow. Why?

When I hear folks calling for new gun laws I can only wonder why. The ones we have are not enforced in many cases, they only affect the law-abiding, and they do nothing to protect society. Maybe before passing new, useless laws, we should try actually enforcing the ones already on the books.