The Trenton Nanny State wants your little ice skater wearing a helmet
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
New Jersey continues to take its “Nanny State” reputation to new extremes, Save Jerseyans. This is already the state where kids can’t shovel snow for extra cash without getting harassed. And the government seated in Trenton keeps on pushing…
A solution in search of a problem indeed! Trenton excels at passing such measures (often in the gun control context) where there just isn’t any justifiable reason to intervene, based on the statics, other than to make the legislators feel good about themselves AND to give them content for their feel-good reelection mailers.
This particular bill is upsettingly bipartisan – sponsored by Assemblywomen Marlene Caride (D-Ridgefield) and Nancy Munoz (R-Union) and its designed to force anyone under age 17 to wear a helmet while ice skating or riding a non-motorized scooter; it would also increase the mandatory helmet from 16 to 17 for bike riding/skateboarding. Ice skaters in competition would be exempt.
Again… why??? Statistics are hard to come by, but according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, in 2009, more than twice as many Americans were treated in emergency rooms for head-related injuries sustained playing golf. Soccer produced 6-times as many head injuries as ice skating! Even trampolining is more dangerous.
1) The article is junk. It compares injuries playing soccer to injuries ice skating, while ignoring the disparity in the number of kids participating in each.
2) All of the research into the long term effects of concussion, which can be particularly damaging earlier in life, suggest that protecting against concussion is a very good idea.
3) New Jerseyans want a Nanny State, otherwise they wouldn’t vote against allowing us to pump our own gas, like the grown ups in almost all the other states.
The Government is out of control.
This country is going down the drain solely due to the size of government, government benefits and government entitlements.
The free market is being smothered by the cost of government.