@khird No, no one is going to kill me if i insist on jay walking, even if i refuse to go to court over it, nor will they arrest you. Most they will do is fine you.
So more specifically it refers to any sort of CRIMINAL law, which is a very important distinction. But yes, any criminal law has the grave consequence of being enforced by threat of death or imprisonment. Thus anytime we make such a law it should be considered such that the severity is fully recognized. It isnt inflamatory, it is stating it like it is.
Not to downplay your point about the gravity of criminalizing something explicitly protected by the law of the land, because that definitely should be brought to light... but on the other hand, I feel like the 2nd amendment debate is engineered to make people focus on this one hot button issue so much that we miss the forest for the trees.
It may be pessimistic, but it seems to me that the Constitution, and specifically the Bill of Rights, is just for show in the modern age. Every single right enumerated in it is violated so often that there's no way it is still actually protecting anything, if it ever was.