[kang]

Somebody threw acid on a girl's face. Indian govt's response, forget the criminal, ban acid sale.

The same always. Definitely a freedom-of-speech issue, but nothing new.

[notfoss]

While I don't quite agree with the ban on acid sale, please don't make it sound as if it happened due to a single instance of an acid attack.

This had become a regular occurrence and the government only acted due to increasing number of such cases.

[kang]

Even if the majority was doing it, banning it solves nothing. It only serves as a gateway. Specifically about acid, I needed it to clean my toilet so went around asking; I was escorted to a black-market shop in Noida which served other illegal things alongside like gas cylinders and hand-made guns.

Justice is the solution. Punish the criminals and people will stop doing it.

[spatulan]

Ever notice that some of the nations with the longest prison sentences, also have high crime rates and reoffending rates?

Or the many examples of crime increasing as sentence length increases?

Or the studies that have shown people sent to prison for a crime have higher reoffending rates than people given community sentences?

Study after study, and real life example after example shows that punishment is a very ineffective way of changing behaviour.

[justincormack]

Complete impunity also does not change behaviour, we are talking where people can commit crimes and there is no punishment or even approval.

[prateek_mir]

It's not a 'ban' on acid sale, its a ban on 'across-the-counter' sale of acid, which means that you need to produce an identification to purchase it.