And it’s a bad argument because it’s ignoring lots of important differences between your situation and the actual in practice legal death penalty. There’s a big difference between the threat of being shot NOW and being executed 20 years from now IF caught. As much as I support the death penalty there’s a good reason why the violent crime rate is NOT lower in states with it, the legal system takes too long to make it a threat.
Just look right here at the thread you’re on, AZ IS a death penalty state, didn’t stop Loughner, doesn’t stop about a murder a week here in Tucson, more than that in Phoenix. If we were running the death penalty like in the 50s and 60s with just a couple years between conviction and execution it might deter, but the way it is now it’s not a threat. Something that is not a threat CANNOT deter, since the very nature of deterrence is that it’s the effect of a threat.
So, when confronted with police with drawn guns, Loughner didn’t stop?