A measure initially brainstormed by the Medical College of Wisconsin to promote traffic safety for children passed the state Senate and is now only a governor's signature away from requiring all children ages eight or younger to sit in a booster seat while riding in a motor vehicle.
This plan is ridiculous on several counts. By the age of eight, most children are approaching a height of four-and-a-half feet. Some petite adults are not much taller than that and are perfectly capable of riding in a regular seat in a car with a normal safety belt.
If the state Senate is so heavily concerned with safety on the roads, it should first focus on persuading parents to buckle their children up properly. Parents who do not buckle children up in the first place will be even less likely to obey the law and purchase a booster seat to restrain their child in.
The additional costs for a family with multiple vehicles and multiple children ages five through eight would be exorbitant, as the lowest-end booster seat is priced approximately $50. Also, the era of soccer mom carpools carting a passel of kids to the area U-8 soccer tournament will wither, as legalities negate the transportation of so many children without restraints.
If this unreasonable bill actually avoids a veto, I pity the third-grade child whose extremely law-abiding parents are the first in his class to strap him into a booster seat after school. Sure, the child would be protected on the roadways, but what of another dangerous stretch of asphalt: the school playground? The opportunity for bullies to prey on those children who abide by the booster seat enforcement will increase, and make the schoolyard a less safe environment for children to coexist socially.
But then, the state Legislature is hypocritical in regard to child safety regulations. After all, a bill is also underway at this time to allow children as young as eight to take hunter's safety courses and thus, legally hunt in the state of Wisconsin.
Imagine being the parent of an 8-year-old child. Which situation seems safer: letting your child ride in the back seat of a motor vehicle with the average safety belt intended for adults, or letting your child roam the woods of northern Wisconsin with a rifle?
These two proposals, if passed, would make for very interesting conversation as the man of the house packs up his young sons in blaze orange to brave the frozen tundra in search of defenseless does. 'Billy, put the Remington down. Daddy has to buckle you in your special safety seat.'
The mere thought is simply absurd. If the state Legislature is so concerned with child safety that it is going to constrict children practically up to pre-pubescent ages in safety restraints usually intended for toddlers, the lawmaking body should not contradict itself by passing legislation that puts firearms in the hands of this same age group.
If a child, by reaching a certain age, is deemed mature enough to understand right from wrong and allowed to use a firearm, this same child certainly has the ability to ride safely in the seat of a motor vehicle with the average safety belt restraint. The Wisconsin state Legislature must make its policies on these matters universal, or not make them at all.
