Posted on 05/30/2025 11:45:56 AM PDT by lowbridge
Come July, common keys for houses, cars, boats, and motorcycles will be illegal in Minnesota, save for uncertain intervention from the state Legislature.
That's when the state's ban on the manufacture, sale, or import of keys, toys, dishes, and other common items containing more than a tiny percentage of lead or cadmium goes into effect.
The purpose of that law was to remove dangerous heavy metals from products that come into contact with children. The trouble is that almost all keys sold today have more lead than the new law's 0.09 percent limit on lead content.
Locksmiths have been warning that the state's lead ban will outlaw most of the products they sell. Alternative metals would require lengthy and expensive transition to using less functional materials, they say.
"Approximately 75 percent of all products that we stock have become prohibited for sale," said Rob Justen of Doyle Security Products.
"Aluminum is too brittle," another locksmith told Valley News Live. "It breaks instead of bends, and it's not as easily machined as brass is. The same problem with steel, it rusts and it's much harder to machine."
Lawmakers have proposed a range of fixes, including raising the lead threshold to 1.5 percent for keys (which is California's standard) or, more modestly, delaying the ban for another three years.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Remind me why we need government.
Stuff will be so much easier to steal and places easier still to rob.
The criminal class will be pleased.
Lawmakers have proposed a range of fixes
Highest bidder?
The idiom “throw the baby out with the bathwater” originates from a German proverb, “das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten” (to pour the baby out with the bath), dating back to at least 1512. The English phrase is a translation of this German proverb. It was first recorded in English in 1853 by Thomas Carlyle, who translated many works from German. The phrase means to discard something valuable along with something unwanted.
All Your Base AI
Where is a federal judge injunction?
We need government to constantly remind us why we don’t need government....................
To e’ff thing up and steal your wealth.
This is insane...
It’s always “for the children.”
Keys are made of Brass. Brass for keys contains up to 2.5% lead to make it more machinable (easier to cut the teeth.)
Mini-brained Minnesota?
To save you from yourself.
If only you would stop licking your keys, we wouldn’t need laws like this.
Sounds to me that the electronic lock MFGs of the USA got a bill passed….wonder if those E Locks have a Police Access Default function…. Just saying…
Surely there isn’t some kind of backdoor in an electronic smart lock?
I kid of course.
If there isn’t one, somebody will find a way to exploit the vulnerability. The genie will be out of the bottle then.
I refuse to have electronic remote control locks.
Can you imagine your keyring with 14 fat electronic fobs hanging off of it? Or better yet, imagine that comical site for your prototypical elementary school janitor. He'd be changing batteries of one or another virtually every day.
Will this also ban the Dims in Minnesota from keying up Teslas?
How ridiculous. Is this Bill Gates’ idea?
Are they banning ammunition too?
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