I guess I can be outcast with aSC, Christian values is my "pet topic", as well. However, I definitely think that(in my absolutely absent knowledge of the darker side of humanity) more laws would have presented one of my best friends suicide... ooops. No it wouldn't have- better parenting would have.
My condolences to your loss of a friend through such tragic circumstances.
While parenting definitely is one of the solutions to our society's moral decline (you're somewhat new here, I'll give my speech again):
"The Lord established three fundamental institutions for the governance of men: family, the Church, and civil government. While these three institutions are separate spheres of authority under God, they clearly have mutually supportive, interwoven functions. The performance — or lack of performance — of each inescapably influences the functioning of the other two. This mutuality of influence derives from an overarching unity of purpose for man and society derived from the eternal will and plan of God for His creation. God's creation manifests His existence and attributes. It is the same with His institutions, provided that men adhere to the Creator's requirements for those institutions. God's institutions have, as does His triune Being, both a unity of purpose and a division of function. The unity of purpose of family, Church and civil government is to glorify God, by teaching, obeying and enforcing His word and law. Family, Church and civil government all are to do these things, but each is given a unique function or sphere of operation. This division of function is not historical, in the sense of historical dispensations in which one or the other of God's institutions is to dominate (the three were united in our first parents), but is rather a continuity of division of labor over time.
The teaching, pastoring function of the ruler or magistrate is of crucial importance. We are popularly told today that the government should not seek to enforce morality — especially (Surprise!) Christian morality — because "you can't legislate morality." Clearly, this contention is at best a half-truth, and as such is a dangerous distortion. It is a distortion which fits quite well with the Humanist canard that "you can't mix religion and politics." All law commands human action; it seeks either to restrain or to urge particular actions. It necessarily says either "Thou shalt" or "Thou shalt not," and it backs these commands to action or restraint with coercion, with sanctions enforced by the power of the sword. The sword and the word are united in law. And because the word commands action by men, the word of law is necessarily a morel teaching, a teaching which seeks to guide the ruled along a particular way of action, of life. This way of life which the law-word commands is what the ruler or lawgiver considers good, and for this reason it is again inevitably a moral teaching, of one sort or another. By teaching men to obey the ruler or lawgiver's commands, via the punishment of those who disobey, who break the law, and by his personal exam pie, the magistrate can do nothing else than teach people moral principles. His teaching, punishing function is a pastoring function, for by it he guides his sheep toward what he considers green pastures and the safety of the fold, and away from what he considers precipices and beasts of prey. His sword is like the shepherd's staff: "if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (vs. 4). By striking fear into the hearts of the evil, he diverts them from their destruction and toward doing that which is good.
http://reformed-theology.org/html/issue08/civil_government.htm
In short, the purpose of the family, the Church, the civil magistrate, hence societal values, should be to glorify God.