Nanny-State comes after your lighter

Topeka — Firefighters and health officials Tuesday called for new restrictions aimed at keeping cigarette lighters out of the hands of children.

“Too many children have access to cigarette lighters because the lighters are displayed in stores where children can easily see them, reach them, take them or purchase them,” said state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita.

Her bill, Senate Bill 106, would make it illegal for a retailer to sell cigarette lighters to anyone under 18 and also make it illegal for anyone under 18 to have a lighter. Any person violating the measure would be subject to a $25 fine and court costs.

Retailers also would be required to keep the lighters out of reach, probably behind the counter.

I wonder if for consistencies sake the law will cover matches, flint, friction between sticks, etc... or is the law only aimed at "assault fire"?

Kansas to prohibit lighters

reply to post by thisguyrighthere



Oh gosh, I did get a laugh out of this one!

What about lighters that are purchased by the parents?

A friend of mine has a 4 year old, who took one off a counter, and went out to a shed and promptly figured it out, setting the whole shed on fire!

Insurance covered the loss, and the child was fine, but I only wonder if insurance companies will now deny losses if this type of situation happens due to a parents negligence, which clearly it was.

The child got the rear end whooping of his life (which concerned me more than the lighter incident) and was temporarily removed from the home.

What can I say? Responsibility does go back to the parents!

Trying to stop human children from playing with fire. By passing legislation. Yeah, that'll work.

I'm all for encouraging 'safe design' on lighters and such, although I think things like that should be implemented via market forces, not direct mandates.

But they're talking about making it illegal for anyone under 18 to possess a lighter?? That's just ridiculous. What about matches? What are you going to do if you go camping? And looking at the article, it seems the Fire Marshall opposes the idea, saying they don't have the quarter of a million dollars it would cost to attempt to enforce the law via spot-checks on retailers.

Doesn't this State Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau have anything better to do?

What people forget as their memories get foggy with age, is that before lighters it was such a thing as matches and that also ended up in the hands of children and caused the same amount of damage as their modern counterpart the now evil lighters.

Were is a will is a way.

[edit on 3-3-2009 by marg6043]

I wonder if the secret agenda is to keep angry Americans from igniting Molotov cocktails to throw into the windows of their local #ed up no good corrupt deadbeat politicians' homes?

I'm curious to see if any ATS posters who consistently come out in support of banning things like bayonet lugs will come out and support this.

The intent of the legislation as well as its practical implementation (or should I say non-implementation) are identical. Come to think of it, the lighter is possibly much more dangerous than a bayonet lug or barrel shroud.

Are those in favor of an "assault weapons" also in favor of an "assault fire" ban?

For the sake of consistency they should be.

Those in favor of a total gun ban would not of course apply to this since this law only seeks to ban one kind of fire making device not all fire making devices so they are free to keep their beliefs without fear of inconsistency.

Fire, hot.

All the lighters I've bought recently have a child-proof band on them. This might not deter older kids, but it's enough for younger ones. If an older kid really wanted fire, they could easily turn on their stove, gas or electric and a rolled up newspaper, or whatever would be lit. Kids will find a way, if they want it bad enough.

You can buy matches in the store. Will those also be illegal for anyone under 18? How about outdoor gas grills? Propane? You can see where I'm going with this.

Sooner or later we as a race are going to be growing taller, if only to be able to reach all the materials , Porno mags, 'adult' comics and now lighters that are stored on the top shelves of stores.

Tell you what Governments of the world, how about making everything else dangerous to our health and well being illegal and then pass legislation to have it all put behind the counter or on the top shelf, items such as fizzy pop containing aspartame, chocolate containing above the RDA of sugar and bubble gum, just coz it makes a mess of your hair when it blows up in your face.

reply to post by DataWraith


I also have doubts about the justification in the article, that many retailers keep lighters on the bottom shelf (next to candy!) easily accessible to small children.

I've never seen that. In convenience stores, lighters are either behind the counter already, or on a rack at the counter-level where the clerk can easily see them.

I think the the incentive to avoid shoplifting is quite clear, and up to the stores to concern themselves with, not for the government to (ineffectively) try and enforce.

It all depends on where you shop here in the UK, sometimes like in petrol stations , lighters are behind the counter but in the small corner shops the lighters are on the counter next to the sweets / candy.

lol. You'd think we didn't have any real problems for government to address...

Seriously... So, is a troop of boyscouts out for a hike now considered a "gang" because they're all criminals? I mean, they've all got lighters in their packs as well as matches. That whole "always prepared" thing and all. I guess that makes the adult troop leaders "crime bosses". lol.

Here in Virginia, they will card you when you purchase a lighter. I guess there are already laws on the books that state you need to be 18 to purchase one. Not sure why, if a kid wants to start a fire he will, its not that complicated.

I am in Kansas. Cooler heads did prevail if you read the whole story.
We are just getting rid of our Govenor "The Wicked Witch of Middle Earth",
Seblius. This is from some of the Librial Retards that want to control daily life here.
If I see that it comes up again, I'll remind them that they need to concentrate on getting jobs as we are starting to get hit hard here.

And while firefighters and KDHE voiced support for the bill, the Kansas Fire Marshal’s Office opposed it, saying it didn’t have the $248,000 start-up costs to conduct the proposed required inspections.

State Sen. Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, also voiced concerns, saying that the way the bill was written, if a youngster started a fire with a cigarette lighter then he or she couldn’t be charged with arson, but the lesser crime of possessing a lighter.

The committee took no action on the measure.
.

Originally posted by Ian McLean

But they're talking about making it illegal for anyone under 18 to possess a lighter?? That's just ridiculous. What about matches? What are you going to do if you go camping?

I tell you what to do when you go camping, get a lighter and go. They can only take your freedoms if you let them.

Magnifying glasses, and solar reflectors will suddenly become trendy teen gear!

When they set about to idiot proof the world they forgot that they were the idiots!

Only in kansas...

how many kids start fires anyways? 1 out of 900,000? C'mon now...

This not only is ridiculous- if I was underage I would be furious. Do they honestly think this will stop fires?

There are many other ways of starting fires...what this is, is a huge waste of time, effort, and money that could be placed somewhere else...

Glad to see that yet another representative is chosing something utterly ridiculous and wasteful over something more pressing and important like community health and the recession...

Way to go Topeka! Remind me not to visit.

I believe we have something similar in Michigan, or it's just a store-wide policy, because I have to card people who want to buy our lighters.

Next step will be banning the teaching of fire-creation skills to anyone under 18, aimed mostly at boy and girl scouts. When I was 14 and didn't have a lighter handy I used the toaster to light my cigs...lol