I'm so glad the bacon don't have guns here in the UK - A criminologist called David Garland has done a lot of work on what he calls 'popular punitiveness' to describe how politicians have been selling the 'tough on crime/ arm the police line' for years, as the only solution to crime as a vote winner - knowing full well it does not reduce crime, but it DOES win votes.
Just in case yer interested I did an evaluation of zero tolerance policing here
Of course I'm sure everyone's read that Freakonimcs chapter on Abortion and crime - standard!