[wisty]

There's 3 main factors talked about in deterrence theory - severity, certainty, and speed.

The US generally has severe enough punishments, and increases do little to add deterrence (and the downsides then take over).

Certainty and speed are weak though. People drive in a civilised manner because if you don't, a cop will write you out a ticket. But if people behave in an uncivilised manner in a more criminal way, it's actually unconstitutional to have swift and certain penalties.

People are fine arguing that the 2nd amendment was more appropriate for the era of muskets. Maybe the 5th is more appropriate for an era where overly harsh sentences were applied to political prisoners through the use of torture.