DOES PROPOSED BAN ON SMOKING IN CAR WITH KIDS GO TOO FAR?

Citing the health risk to youngsters of second-hand smoke, a Georgia legislator has proposed a state law that would prohibit adults from smoking in vehicles with children. Critics say that’s a nanny state response, with government threatening to outlaw what’s otherwise a legal activity. Georgia’s proposed smoking ban presents potential ethical dilemmas around the restriction of second-hand-smoking in private domains, such as vehicles, when children are present. Previous policies provided smoke-free public spaces for the majority, to protect the environment and an individual from exposure to secondhand smoke. Children are considered a vulnerable population, with no voice . ... The same policies that protect children from at-risk behaviors should be extended to second-hand smoking with children present. I realize there are many reasons for people to quit smoking. As a previous smoker, I feel I can speak on this subject. I believe the government would be going too far in prohibiting smoking in your own automobile with your own children. They say “No Smoking” about every place now. Next, they will not even want you to smoke in your own homes — it might harm the children. Enough is enough. Hitler passed the same anti-smoking laws. At least we know where the Democrats got their anti-tobacco agenda from — the Third Reich. Hitler’s anti-tobacco folks invented passivrauchen — passive smoking — to further brainwash the German people. It seems Democrats think Americans are just as stupid as to believe second-hand smoke, which is 96 percent water vapor and air, would harm anyone. My children are in their 30s now, but I quit smoking when they were 5 and 2 years old. I quit primarily because they were sick so often, and so was I. So I do know that smoking around kids is harmful. I am not so certain it will protect children to criminalize the act of smoking in the car. However, it is inexplicable that the General Assembly can address this smoking problem, but leave the problem of gun violence out of their reckoning. To leave a loaded gun in a place where a child can find it, and shoot himself or someone else, needs to be addressed as a felony — with custodial rights and gun ownership hanging in the balance. Cigarettes are bad, but guns are too often fatal.