Have you ever thought about why we have laws? What purpose do they serve? At the root of it all, laws are put into place for two purposes. They are to act as a deterrent to what ever the behavior is that the lawmaker wants to stop and to bring about justice for those who have been wronged by the lawbreaker.

These two concepts go hand in hand and this is why it makes no sense to make laws that apply to things like helping someone commit suicide. If no one is harmed by someone wishing to take their own life, why do we need a law to prevent it? The same goes for “illegal” drugs. If the person taking the drug is not hurting anyone but themselves let them be. You will never be able to legislate stupidity. This particular idea that you can legislate someone’s behavior is ridiculous. Making it illegal to buy a soft drink larger than XXX ounces for instance. We have seen how well the war on drugs has worked. Why would we think the war on preventing us from eating poorly will be any better. But that’s another discussion.

So back to changing behavior and having justice served. In order for these two things to be accomplished the punishment must fit the crime. If a rapist gets 20 years and a serial rapist gets the same punishment then there is no deterrent from committing multiple rapes. Same thing for murder. You kill some one and get life. You kill 10 and you get life. Where is the deterrent and where is the justice. The punishment MUST fit the crime. All that to say that the perpetrator who committed the heinous crime in Colorado should NOT get anything other than the death penalty. Period. End of story. And being “insane” is not a defense. We are all insane to some degree or another. The kind of planning that occurred , in my mind, rules out any insanity defense.

The scores of people that were killed and wounded cry out for justice. If this individual is not punished in a manner that fits his crime, then they have been wronged yet again.