I touched on this subject last week but it bears a more in depth post. The nanny state has been passing laws meant to protect people for ages now, unfortunately any law meant to protect people is automatically oxymoronic.
Let’s consider what a law is. A law is a decree that either allows, mandates, or prohibits an action or set of actions by threat of violence. This is always the case, there is no such thing as a law that isn’t backed by the threat of violence. For example, if you commit murder you will be arrested and if you attempt to resist the arresting officers they will use force to take you; If you resist sufficiently they will even go so far as to kill you.
Protection laws are ones that mandate or prohibit an action or set of actions that have been deemed harmful. In my previous posted I talked about the new law being pushed in New York City that would ban restaurant and theater owners from selling soft drinks in containers that have a storage capacity greater than 16 ounces. In Minnesota we have laws that mandate the wearing of seat belts while in a motor vehicle and prohibit smoking cigaretts inside publicly accessible buildings (basically any building somebody works in). The idea behind these laws is that not wearing a seat belt is dangerous as is smoking.
Mandating or prohibiting an action through the threat of force to protect somebody is hypocritical. When Minnesota mandates vehicle occupants wear a seat belt they’re actually saying, “Wear a seat belt or else…” The “or else” part starts at a fine which, if not paid, will escalate into kidnapping and even murder. There is no logic behind such laws. How can one claim to be protecting another by threatening that person? Can I enter your home, pull a gun on you, and demand you stop eating potato chips? No, I would go to jail for such an act. Yet when the state does the exact same thing people cheer it.
Anytime a politician starts promoting a law to protect you remember that he really means to threaten you if you perform actions that he believes are harmful.