Reply #125: That is an interesting thing though...

[Solon]

Like I said, I refuse to let anyone into my car, child or adult, who doesn't follow my rules, those are simple, shut up, sit down, and buckle up. I do NOT want anyone in the car to be maimed or killed, I always buckle up, a holdover from my parents telling me: "We aren't going to the movies till you BUCKLE UP!"

That being said, I should have been more specific about driving priveleges, you can do that all you want from any age up, on your own property, you own a farm, you can drive any vehicle from a bicycle to a tractor, from the age you can practically be able to till you die, without any restrictions. However, once you enter the public roads, paid for by all people, and maintained by the government, then you have to obey the rules. In the case of minors, it should be more restrictive, they are not responsible for their own well being until age of majority, parents are, and they are the ones who should be responsible for children's safety on the roads, and liable as well for lack of precautions.

This gets tricky when talking about adults, but to be frank, it is not technically a violation of any rights to have a ticket written for not buckling up when on public roads. There is no slippery slope, simply because in this particular case, it only applies on public roads. Just as I can tell you not to smoke in my house(I wouldn't but just an example) the government can restrict, or outright ban you from using the public roads in a 2000 pound vehicle. The same is true in many other ways, such as public decency laws, you can't streak through a public park at noon without some consequences, regardless of what your drunk friends say. :) Neither can you do a number of things on public property that you can do in your own home or property. You can't have sex in a car on public property, yet I don't see anyone complain about being caught and written a ticket, or even thrown in jail over that.

This is not to say that it should be done, though I do generally agree with it, as a matter of personal safety. However, their are differences between reasonable(seatbelt laws) versus unreasonable laws(banning smoking on outdoor public property). Its a balance, but overall, it is one that rarely endangers our rights. I'm more concerned about rights explicitly written into the bill of rights, that apply on public property, that are restricted. That is the big thing about the bill of rights, those are enumerated rights that apply both on public and private property, I don't see the use of vehicles as one of those rights.