All men may be created equal, but all laws are not. Some laws are a matter of common sense, like laws against rape, robbery, and murder. These crimes are atrocities, and the common good is undeniably best served by enforcement of laws against them. I think we can all agree that when one person commits one of these acts against another person, they should be punished. I also think we can all generally agree that none of us would want any of these things to happen to us or any one we care about.
Other laws, however, delve into an area that is not so black and white. For instance, officials in San Francisco recently tabled a proposed law that would ban the sale of all pets, except fish, within the city. Personally, I am a dog lover and have been all my life. To me the idea of anyone else telling me that I could not purchase a puppy, seems to be just plain strange.
Now I understand that they have not proposed a ban on pet ownership. However, if you are free to go outside city or county limits and purchase a pet that they bring back with them doesn’t make a lot of sense. Is the common good really being served by a measure that just forces people to go somewhere else, but can still do the same thing that the law prevents?
I doubt that a law like that would have any real positive effect towards solving whatever problem they think they’ll be solving. People will still buy pets. People like puppies, and well they should. Puppies may be work and responsibility, but they almost always provide their owners with a source of joy. To me, laws like that will really only govern who can purchase a pet, not as much where the pet is purchased. If you have the means to travel outside the city and purchase a pet, you’re in like Flynn. However, if you cannot, I hope you like goldfish.
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