@gruber on “you follow the law because of guns” and “bigger gun theory”, you may be interested in the idea of (and essay about) “necropolitics”

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necropolitics
Essay: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/theoryfromthemargins/mbembe_22necropolitics22.pdf