Glenn Greenwald, one of that endangered species of liberals who actually care about preserving liberty, writes here about the rush to enact draconian new legislation in the wake of the Tucson shootings. He calmly observes that such legislation (focusing in particular on a proposal that would make it easy to lock up people who are thought to perhaps have mental illnesses) would do a lot of harm, open up the potential for abuse, yet probably do little or nothing to prevent violence.
Hasty legislation enacted in the wake of some tragedy or crisis (remember — politicians hate to let a good crisis go to waste!) can make politicians look concerned and effective, but it usually does far more harm than good. Just think of all the New Deal laws meant to deal with the economic crisis of the early ’30s. They did not work, but actually made economic conditions worse, and almost 80 years later, they’re still doing that.
