Lawmaking to make the already illegal, more illegal?
Reports of a central-government proposed bill to discourage juvenile ram-raiders smacks of deja-vu, akin to that of prohibiting semi-automatic centrefire rifles following the mass-murders by a terrorist in Christchurch just four years ago.
Just as everything the offender in Christchurch did was illegal, so are the mis-deeds of the ram-raiders. Most of these raiders don’t even have drivers licences! We can of course hope that their motor vehicles are registered.
The seemingly blithe assurance with which lawmakers idiotically create and pass laws with inordinate haste, leaving the law abiding to rue the unintended consequences of ill-considered legislation (which often repeats the intended controls of existing laws) tells us a lot more about the lawmakers than perhaps they intended.
Another unintended consequence perhaps?
