Outlawing objects

Stories like this one illustrate one thing: Laws that attempt to outlaw objects cannot ever be effective. In prison, nothing and no one is supposed to enter the facility without being searched. The prisoners and their cells can and are searched at any time, without a warrant.  If we cannot even keep people in prison from having contraband cell phones, how can the government keep people from owning weapons, drugs, or any other item?

Last year, California prison guards confiscated nearly 11,000 contraband phones, a sharp increase from 2007 when only 1,400 were found. Even Charles Manson, arguably the state's most notorious inmate, has twice been caught with contraband phones.

The answer is- they can't, and no amount of infringement of rights is going to change that, even if we were all treated like prisoners.