Flowers Introduces Prohibition on Youth Riding -- Again!
Illinois House bill 5029, introduced by Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago), would make it illegal for anyone under the age of 16 to operate an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) or off-highway motorcycle (OHM). The proposed legislation would also make it illegal to transport a passenger on an ATV or OHM regardless of whether the vehicle is configured for a passenger. The bill would also require ATV and OHM riders to have valid driver's licenses and wear helmets.
This legislation is nearly identical to legislation introduced by Rep. Flowers last year that ultimately died in the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. This legislation was referred to the rules committee on January 25th. Additional updates will be posted as they become available.
17 comments:
Craig, I don't think she sounds crazy, but she sure sounds bitter. Probably doesn't want kids doing anything productive with their time.
I trashed my entire email list for politicians who helped defeat this previous bill, Timmy. I thought it was over.
You know the work I'll have to do to rebuild it? Man, oh, man. I'm not looking forward to this battle - again.
With politicians, it seems to me, nothing's ever over. If they really don't like something, I've learned they'll do anything to pass laws on it.
Sorry to hear about this and best of luck to you and everyone involved.
Craig, I don't think she sounds crazy, but she sure sounds bitter. Probably doesn't want kids doing anything productive with their time.
The autistic mind-reader.
You know the work I'll have to do to rebuild it? Man, oh, man. I'm not looking forward to this battle - again.
Sir, I salute your indefatigability.
Our legislators surely have more pressing concerns than the safety of the relative handful of children whose parents are dumb enough to let them play on ATVs and off-highway motorcycles.
But I have to say, that while I don't believe in legislating every pocket of our personal lives, and that I don't believe that legislators have the right to impose heavy-handed legislation on dangerous activities and on parents idiotic enough to let their kids play with toys like this, that any parent who would let his kid so endanger himself is crazy.
It only strikes me as faintly whack that the same people who go to pieces at the thought of kids being exposed to cigarette smoke don't hesitate to let their young teens play with these dangerous motorized toys.
I guess playing with dangerous, over-powered motorized toys is just a normal part of the coming-of-age process for young men and that caring citizens ought to just butt out of it.
nrn312 said...
The autistic mind-reader.
And may I ask just what that's supposed to mean?
Explain to us why that's a bad idea - why kids under 16 shouldn't be on them. How old do you think they should be? I'm just curious here.
Where is this Flowers woman located? Did something happen to her that makes her want this bill passed?
The mind reader thing was meant as a compliment to you I think, that's how I read it anyway.
I hope so, I live here too. I didn't quite read it that way. Well, then again, it was at 5 in the morning when I read it and I had just woken up.
Raz, teens and children are very impulse-driven and have proved over and over that they are not trustworthy with fast, powerful machinery. These things are not like bicycles. They are very fast, very powerful, and can inflict much more serious damage. They demand much more skill and quicker response.
Certain studies have shown that the teen brain is very different from the adult brain, and that youngsters are far more dominated by impulse and tend to be more reckless and imprudent. If we had any sense, we'd have raised the legal driving age to 18 across the country 50 years ago.
Now,as long as it's an off road vehicle and I don't have to deal with them on the streets orsidewalks, kids are welcome to their ATVs and off-highway motorbikes and snowmobiles and dunebuggies and other hazardous nonsense, at their parents' discretion. They're YOUR kids, not mine. If you want to endanger them, that's your business.
Freedom to make personal choices.
As a parent I want to make the decessions not Mary Flowers.
So Craig add me to the list of people to tell Mary Flowers to go away.
MFGFYourself Buttons ASAP.
Why does it take the north coast seven paragraphs to say something that can wrapped up in three sentences? You're right, north coast-they're not your kids and they're not Mary Flowers' (yeah, lots of ATV and snowmobile riders in the 31st District) kids. Both of you scolds need to sit back and let social Darwinism run it's course. At least we were spared any references to St.Louis and guns...
The closer we get to universal health care, the more such restrictions we will have.
Cmon Craig, David Bell has been in custody for two days and no mention of it here.....
OK, BJB, I'll be pithier and to the point:
Raise your own kids however the fuck you please and let them run amok with dangerous equipment, that's your call as a parent.
But please just lay the fuck off the cigarette smokers who happen to be within 50' of your precious darling while he is bucking an off-highway motorcycle or jumping out of airplanes. And don't haul some perfectly nice mom in just because she smokes with her kid in the car with her.
I'm tired of having to worry more about how my innocent and harmless actions in a public place might safety or health or delicate sensibilities of some stranger's kid than his own parents do.
Hmm - OK - well sorry North Coast but I don't want people smoking around me. It makes me crazy when I sit down outside to enjoy a nice cup of coffee and get some work done - then somebody sits next to me and lights up! I don't think that's harmless - It happens all the time in the summer at Starbucks - I want to take that ashtray and hit them over the head with it! LOL Smoke your brains out in your own house (as long as it's not in my building and the smoke is coming through my vents!)
What parents do with their kids on their private property is not really my business.
Well, ok then! LOL
My dearest neighbors:
Thanks be to our dear lord that we have people like this lady whose only interest is keeping our darling sweet children safe. Remember that it takes a village to raise children and if the village fails to do its duty then the government must step in. The more laws and restrictions like this that get enacted, the better off and safer we all will be. Thank you heroine Mary Flowers.
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