Laws Within America

The United States of America has laws in place to protect and serve its citizens. The law is carried out and upheld by police officers to the best of their ability, yet there are still injustices within America due to what I believe is an inability of certain laws to clearly define right and wrong, and the punishments that should go along with the crimes.

I believe that if America is to right itself of these injustices, the first thing that needs to happen is an evening out of the punishments for crimes. I do not think that it is right that a man that robs a bank gets more time and a harder stint in prison, than a man that steals money from a company. I think that the law should be much harder on so-called "white collar" crime. The men that stole from Enron are just as bad as the men that hold up the local convenience stores.

Another way that America could shape up a little in the law department is stiffer penalties for those who own and sell illegal firearms. One does not have an illegal handgun to go hunting with on the weekend. Illegal firearms are used in crimes. I believe that if there were harsher penalties for those distributing and possessing illegal firearms, America would be a safer place. The danger in illegal firearms is that they can become hard to trace. If a person robs a bank with a handgun that was legally purchased at a gun store, and then ditches the weapon, it is much easier to trace the serial numbers, run the information, and get the man. If the sentence for dealing illegal arms was stiffer, people might think twice before doing it.

Really, America is a great place to live. She is a country that watches out for her own, and that's what I love about her. There are not too many things that not to be changed about the laws. I feel very safe wherever I travel, though I do believe that I would feel safer if "white-collar" crime laws and gun laws were a little harsher than they are now.