Americans love solving problems through punishment. So do a lot of people worldwide. Most of the world’s governments operate on the idea that punishment is the best deterrence to crime. As well as the best way to mete out justice after a crime happens. And yet crime keeps happening.
Then there are ideas offered like what I read in the Ventura County Star, a newspaper covering Camarillo, California. The opinion piece’s author expresses frustration over America’s fixation with gun laws. His argument: guns don’t kill people, people do.
His solution? Impose harsh jail times for those who commit crimes using firearms. Ron Van Dyke, the author writes:
We see every day repeat offenders with prior gun conviction/possessions walking. They may go to local or state jail or even get their gun charge reduced or thrown out through plea deal. This has to stop. There needs to be heavier consequences to their actions. Those consequences need to be in the form of federal time for gun crimes. Congress could fix gun violence with one single law.
What does Van Dyke mean by “federal time”? He gives us an idea in the next paragraph:
Mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison for illegal possession of a weapon; second offense 10 years; and third strike life. Hope you noticed that this is just the illegal gun penalties. If a gun, legal or illegal, was used in a crime, the above time is doubled.
Can this work?
It’s possible such a federal law could pass Congress if a republican majority house and senate existed along with a republican administration. Or if gun crime was out of control across most of the nation. One might argue gun crime IS out of control across most of the nation. But since we don’t have a republican-dominant administration or Congress, there’s not enough agreement on that.
Even if Van Dyke’s proposal were passed, would it work? Would it prevent gun crimes? Some, maybe. But we already have all kinds of laws on the books for all kinds of crimes. And yet such crimes keep happening. Including gun crimes. In other words, threats of punitive action – even jail time – don’t deter crime. According to the US Department of Justice, that’s because criminals are stupid or at least not very well informed:
Certainty of getting caught is the greatest deterrent to crime according to the Justice department. Still, a better way to deter crime makes more sense. And that better way comes built in to Copiosis. In essence, that better way looks like this: Make most crime unnecessary or impossible.
Crime doesn’t pay in Copiosis
While most don’t think this way, some believe robbing a filling station is an easy way to get money. Robbing other people can create easy money too.
But in Copiosis, most of these kinds of crime don’t pay. That’s because a person can’t give another their Net Benefit Rewards (NBR), even if they wanted to. So someone using a gun to get money can’t get money.
With gun crimes committed for financial gain out of the way, that leaves crimes of passion involving guns. America sees a lot of these. For example, domestic disputes involving guns, revenge shootings, many murders and suicides happen nearly every day in the US. Then there’s our mass shootings…
Such crimes can only be addressed by creating societies without factors leading to such situations. Mostly that means creating societies where people aren’t mentally disturbed, stressed out or otherwise struggling.
Thankfully, Copiosis offers a society where nearly all of today’s stressors get eliminated. No one need earn a living. Instead, people can do whatever they want pretty much and receive income. Further, everyone’s necessities are provided. And those providing them get rich.
So there’s little causing people to want to harm others or themselves. For those few situations where people might feel such desires, healthcare, including mental health is ubiquitous and costs nothing.
It’s not about eliminating guns either
Meanwhile, Copiosis maximizes people’s freedoms. That means gun owners no long need worry about someone taking their guns. However, in Copiosis people fed up with gun violence can create solutions to gun violence without people getting in their way. Today some people are really close to creating what may be an effective solution to some gun violence.
At least three startups have designed “smart guns”; firearms only the owners can fire. Should anyone else pick the gun up, the gun locks. Ironically enough, a firearm manufacturer proffered the idea of a “smart gun”, back in 1999. But the NRA boycotted the company – Smith & Wesson – to the point it almost went out of business.
Resistance is futile
As we see in so many instances, in today’s world, it’s relatively easy to prevent progress. If you’re powerful enough, and profitable enough, or connected enough, resisting progress isn’t hard. If that progress means your costs go up or it threatens your existence, today’s world almost compels such behavior.
In Copiosis, that kind behavior is futile. Everyone is free. That freedom includes making something that puts everyone else out of business. The good news with Copiosis is intellectual property rights protections don’t exist. So anyone can copy anyone else’s idea. Of course, when that happens, the idea’s originator gets ongoing NBR for every copied version people consume.
Making things better makes the world better. So Copiosis maximizes people’s ability to make things better. In the world Copiosis creates, resistance, as the Borg say, is futile. It’s better to just go along with the progress.
And this is another reason why I’m so excited about what Copiosis offers. Instead of trying to punish people as a way to a better world, Copiosis inspires everyone to join in benefiting from the better world people make. How? By making anyone willing to improve things, in a net beneficial way, very, very rich.
We published a couple posts some time ago about Copiosis and crime. If you want to know more, check them out here and here.
