Posted on 03/19/2012 4:05:11 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Maryland Senate passed a bill Wednesday morning that would make it illegal for a driver or passenger to smoke in a vehicle occupied by a child under 8 years old.
Senators voted 27-19 to send the bill to the House of Delegates after a lively debate over the rights of children to be protected from the dangers of second-hand smoke versus the rights of parents to be free from government intrusion in their vehicles.
The legislation would allow police officers to pull over drivers observed to be smoking in cars with a child in a booster seat. Children 8 and up were exempted because of the difficulty of determining the age of an older child. The maximum fine for a violation would be set at $50.
Proponents pointed to multiple scientific studies have shown that children in cars where others smoke are exposed to unsafe levels of toxins -- whether the windows of the vehicle are rolled up or not.
"This isn't about Big Brother. This is about little brother in the back seat," said Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
There is always that!
I’m in an out of Maryland on a regular basis, I only live 8 miles from the state line, but I do my best to obey everyone of their idiocies because I just do not need the hassle.
All your personal liberties are belong to us.
KEERIST!
A 7 year old boy has to sit in a baby seat???
I was riding in the back of pickups at 7 years old and sometimes on the way to the gun range!
I guess that both I and my (now deceased) parents were some sort of freaks and should have been incarcerated for the past 50 years.
A city in my state want 12 year olds to have free condoms dished out at school and Maryland passes a no smoking in cars bill - what a strange universe we live in.....
Crack a Window and Keep your Pants Zipped
Oh for simpler times.......
The same senators so concerned about the effects of second hand smoke on children probably voted for full term abortion ‘rights’.
God save the Republic from nanny state idiots.
Or just bag the idea of kids altogether because life is just too risky. It’s “for the children”
The government is trying - hence the mandate from HHS to provide benefits for free sterilization.
Another well-intentioned screwup by the commie libs. People will just leave their kids “home alone”. Great job Commies!!!
I’m not saying I support this particular plan. And the risk is that your house is next, since your child is obviously stuck in the closed house with the smoke as well.
But I disagree that this is purely a liberty issue. The argument for liberty only applies if you first dismiss the opinion that the smoke is harmful to the child.
I will argue that point from a slightly different analogy. Suppose a parent decided to punish their child by putting them in a closet with a set of burning cigarettes, so as to cause the child distress and coughing from a lack of fresh air. I think many would agree that forcing a child to breathe smoky air as a punishment would be something we might be interested in correcting.
A person’s liberty does not extend to causing harm to others, especially not trapped children who have no way to avoid the harm.
Which raises another question — does a 7-year-old have the right to object to having to breathe smoky air in a closed car? I have a neighbor who smokes all the time, and her daughter used to ask my son if we could drive her to school all the time, because she couldn’t stand the cigarette smoke from her mother smoking in the car. A law like this would have protected her without her having to somehow stand up to her mother and object to the smoke.
I know I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a car with a smoker. My mother smoked, but since I haven’t been around smoke for a long time, my tolerance for it has decreased quite a bit. I don’t ask people not to smoke, I just avoid being around them. But a 7-year-old doesn’t get that choice.
I think we miss the boat when we argue that any harm against a child can be dismissed with an appeal to the liberty of the parent.
God gave us free will, so God has nothing to do with this. It is up to us.
Suppose a parent decided to punish their child by putting them in a government school, or buying them a Big Mac, or teaching them how to use firearms, or setting off fireworks in the back yard, or forcing them to eat red meat, or forcing them to ride around in an eco-friendly Obamamobile golf cart, or...........the list goes on.
I knew a guy who got home after taking a semi load of grain form teh ranch into town to see the local cop in the driveway of the farm. The officer told this guys dad that at 12 years old, he really shouldn’t be driving the semi to town.
Charles,
In the words of that great poet and Philosopher William J. Clinton, I feel your pain. My uncles used to smoke in the house while drinking and playing cards. As an 11 year old I couldn’t stand it. My eyes would water. Couldn’t breathe.
I was born 30 years too late. They were having a great time. When I complained to them about the smoke they told me to shut up and go to my mom. I reminded them of that while we were outside while they were smoking a cigarette and I was puffing on an apple cinnamon flavors ecig last month. We laughed. I love my uncles.
Moral of the story if there is one...
If you put a gun to my head and forced me to sign one of two stupid nanny state laws:
Either ban smoking in cars with children or
Ban smoking in bars with fat drunk adults...I would choose the former.
The kids have no choice. The adults do. But this is about coercing smokers to quit and buy pharmaceutical gums. They don’t care about the chilruns.
Funniest post ever!
p.s.——Don’t forget seat belts.
Liberal logic:
Abortion is a choice
Smoking is murder
Liberalism is a mental disease.
Thanks for the ping!
Nanny states would drive me nuts.
Funniest...line...ever!
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