State legislator seeks to outlaw sale of novelty lighters

[derby378]

This is truly a :wtf: piece of legislation. Pure nanny-state BS.

Check it out for yourself:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/pdf/HB00090I.pdf

[NoPasaran]

1. First Day of the Session

And already the "Sexy Cheerleaders Bill" has been topped!

This is going to be a wild one!

[WolverineDG]

2. Thanks guys! Give CPS another reason to seize children

"They have novelty lighters! That teaches children it's okay to play with fire & to smoke!" :crazy:

dg

[johncoby2]

3. This is a safety issue

http://blogs.chron.com/consumerwatch/2008/02/calls_for_novelty_lighters_ban.html

Seems like others are banning them also. Personally I cant figure why you would make a lighter look like a toy. You are begging to get banned.

I doubt the toy lighter lobby is very strong.

[WolverineDG]

4. How's about parents acting like, oh, parents

and minding their own kids?

dg

[johncoby2]

5. Uh...there is no law from kids buying lighters

And parents are not with their kids all the time, except for those who don't have any kids. They are the know it alls when it comes to parenting.

Really, what idiot thought of making a lighter look like a frickin toy?

Seriously. Anything for a buck.

[WolverineDG]

6. What parent lets their kids play with lighters

or matches? :eyes: Mine sure as hell didn't. They impressed upon my brothers & me just how dangerous it was to play with fire & surprisingly none of us felt the urge to play with fire & burn the house down.

You really think there is that big of a danger of fire from "novelty" lighters that they have to be banned? Because what's next on the No-No list?

dg

[sonias]

7. Next on the list - toy guns and then real guns

Seriously why not? I mean guns are very dangerous so why make toy guns to confuse young children? They might pick up a real gun and think it's a toy. And don't tell me toy guns can't kill you. They might not kill you directly but there are plenty of cases where toy guns have been mistaken for real guns and police have shot at kids who had them.

But of course Texas is not going to ban guns or toy guns either.

There really has to be some responsibility placed on the parents or adults in the house where young children are present. Lighters are just one thing that might be dangerous to young children, but there are hundreds of others too. That's why parents do a "child proofing" of their home. Or they should.

Novelty lighters are made for adults. They are not made to entice children to buy them. Children don't normally have disposable money. But parents shouldn't leave lighted cigarettes or open beer cans lying around for children to pick up. Or as dg points out - matches. A plain old matchbox cover or a fancy decorated one is going to attract an unattended child. They can start fires with these too.

Kids are attracted to anything they see as new. It's part of the normal curiosity of growing up.

So I think the real issue is making novelty lighters childproof, isn't it? Collectors can always disable the child proofing which may be a pain in the ass, but at least the things won't be banned.


Sonia