Each year Americans relinquish more and more of their freedoms. Laws are enacted to protect the safety and overall welfare of the people. However, these new laws nibble away little by little at the very freedoms Americans hold so dear.
Our elected officials enact new laws on our behalf meant to protect our safety, but in doing so they take away our freedom of choice. These laws often make sense. Helmet laws are one example. The intent is to protect riders from head injuries in the event of an accident. Here again though the law meant to protect safety is taking away freedom of choice. An additional point is that wearing a helmet is no guarantee that injury or death won’t occur.
Seatbelt laws are another law that makes sense. Studies have shown that the use of seatbelts save lives and reduces the number of severe injuries in motor vehicle collisions. However, by legislating the use of seatbelts, the individual freedom of choice has been lost. Many activities have inherent dangers yet they have not been outlawed. Paragliding, rock climbing, kayaking, surfing and swimming are all activities that have risks and may even result in death. It would seem ridiculous to make these activities unlawful.
Protecting those who don’t have a choice from the negligence of another individual makes sense and is understandable. Requiring infants and small children to be properly seatbelted in to a car seat or booster seat is common sense. Making drinking and driving illegal protects the safety of others. It is one thing to make laws to protect individuals from the negligence of another, but totally different to tell a person that a law has been enacted to protect the individual from themselves.
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