House Bill 1337 Smoking in a vehicle with children. Rep. Charlie Brown. This bill was defeated by a vote of 43 to 51. It would have subjected people to a $25 fine if they were smoking in a vehicle with a child less than 13 years old. This law would not have been primarily enforceable — in other words, law enforcement would not have been permitted to stop a person for violating this law, but could only be cited in conjunction with a stop for some other sort of violation. It also would have prohibited smoking near a public mass transportation terminal.
I don’t know all the party affiliations of the Representatives on sight, but I see that some of the Democrats who voted against this bill are Representatives Dvorak, Crooks, and Battles.
All I can say, and trust me on this as a child of smokers: cigarette smoke gets to the way back of a station wagon much, much faster than the air conditioning.
[tags]HB1337-2007, public health[/tags]
I personally struggle with this bill.
Part of me doesn’t want government intrusion into our lives. And I know the seat belt law started as not being primarily enforcable either – but now is. The thought of “smoking checkpoints” is a complete turn-off to me. I’d rather the cops be looking for real crime.
The other part of me recognizes that all citizens are on the hook for the health care costs of those without insurance… so we’re paying for the health care costs of the kids whose parents are so negligent and care to little about their kids that that they smoke in front of them.
Plus, why should parents be able to exercise their right to smoke and at the same time hurt their children’s health? It’s one thing to exercise your rights, but your right to exercise your rights ends when you impede my rights. (You have the right to bear arms, but you don’t have the right to shoot me.)
So I guess I think it’s best to err on the health of the kids than the rights of the parents.