Posted on 12/31/2008 10:46:27 AM PST by Red Badger
It has all the makings of a holiday toy: a miniature Santa Claus that lights up, chuckles "Ho, ho, ho" and sings a Christmas carol.
But there’s a catch: To activate those cool features, a person has to flick the lighter switch and spark a flame. And that is why there’s an effort to ban it, along with other novelty lighters.
State Rep. Ed Wildberger, a Democrat from St. Joseph and a former firefighter, has pre-filed a bill that would make it illegal to sell novelty lighters in Missouri. The proposed law would specifically prohibit lighters that look like cartoon characters, animals, vehicles or food products. Lighters that play music or have flashing lights also would be outlawed.
Fire groups across the country support such a ban because the entertaining lighters pose a risk to children. "One of the things that concerns us about novelty lighters is they look like toys, and that causes children to treat them as toys, increasing the potential for accidental fires to start," said Battalion Chief Gale Blomenkamp of the Boone County Fire Protection District. "When you see a lighter that looks like a football or a toy, kids are going to be more apt to play with them."
Read more • Capitol Notes Blog: Ban novelty lighters?
To demonstrate just how fun they appear to be, Columbia fire Battalion Chief Steve Sapp has a collection of novelty lighters he uses to educate parents. In addition to the singing Santa, Sapp has lighters that resemble a deer, a pig, a ladybug, a motorcycle and a race car hood. Many of the lighters make noises or flash lights, but not until there’s a flame.
"Once there’s an open flame, kids can get a little experimental," Sapp said. "They might burn little scraps of paper. Then, unfortunately, and sometimes unknowingly, they set other products on fire unintentionally."
Sapp said he understands that to adults, the lighters are simply novelty items. "But they’re almost too tempting for a child to want to play with," he said.
Not everyone is on board with banning the items. Randy Trierwieler, manager of Midway Truck Plaza, where novelty lighters are a big seller, thinks it should be a parent’s responsibility - not a lawmaker’s - to keep lighters out of little hands. "If you have a Bugs Bunny lighter and a 3-year-old, don’t leave it out," Trierwieler said. "I don’t think it’s something you need to pass a law for. There are a lot more serious problems in this country than passing legislation determining what can or can’t be on a lighter."
Missouri isn’t the only state where a ban has been proposed. Maine and Tennessee prohibited novelty lighters this year, and a few other states and localities are considering similar proposals, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.
There aren’t a lot of data to illustrate just how dangerous novelty lighters are because fire departments don’t separate them from standard lighters when tracking causes of fires, Missouri State Fire Marshal Randy Cole said. The state does track fires set by children, though, and last year 26 of the 76 fires caused by lighters were set by juveniles younger than 16. In 2006, 29 of 75 fires blamed on lighters were started by juveniles, Cole said, noting that not all fire departments report incidents into the state’s system.
There are a handful of anecdotal reports from around the country in which children have been hurt playing with novelty lighters. Among the incidents cited by the U.S. Fire Administration:
● In 2007, a 15-month-old and a 2-year-old in Arkansas died after setting their family’s apartment ablaze with a motorcycle-shaped lighter;
● A 6-year-old in Maine last June picked up a miniature baseball bat lighter in a grocery store, flicked the switch and burned part of his face.
● One child died and another was injured in Oregon after playing with a lighter that resembled a toy dolphin.
Until a ban on the lighters is adopted in Missouri, Blomenkamp urges parents to keep them away from youngsters. "Keep them out of sight and out of the minds of children," he said. "Kids are going to be curious, and if it looks like a toy, kids are going to play with it like a toy."
When times were good. In lean times, we had to rub our fingers together till they caught fire. Then the next time, since you didn’t have fingers anymore, you’d have to get your buddy to light his.
When I was a kid we didn’t have fire.
You have to learn to post without thinking what so ever ;^)
Damn, you had a buddy!
Well, till we used the rest of him for kindling.
Actually this hits pretty close to being hostile to the founding fathers’ stated right to “pursue happiness”.
IMHO this is what conservativism can be rebuilt upon.
The GOP rather than bailing out bankers — should define that right to pursue happiness as so fundamental to what America is about, that it becomes a platform of the Republican Party in some concrete form; perhaps a constitutional amendment which specifies that any legal “ban” at the state, local or federal level automatically sunsets after 5 years unless re-authorized, and all “bans” must be passed by a 75% super-majority at any level to remain in place.
Seriously, this is exactly how we’re losing our freedoms.
Busibody dopes like the lighter-banner.
And the issue really does resonate at a very fundamental level, with Americans.
“It’s a free country, stupid”.
We have a few of these jerks locally where I live. I notice one thing in common, the dumber they are the louder they talk.
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