The Philadelphia Inquirer & N J P P C
Charter Member
06-04-2002, 08:41 AM
#12
Kudos to the NJPPC and Dave P., You have done our sport a great service after an unavoidable(we think) tragedy.
While I agree that some type of certification might be nice, please remember that we are talking about the Government(local, state, federal) getting involved. One trip to any DMV or a quick read of any book of statutes will show you how poorly government does things. We should not open that door to the legislators or the sport of performance boating might go away completely. A better example than cars and motorcycles is guns. At some point people decided that some form of registration or licensing might be a nice idea. The politicos jumped on that and have come up with over 20,000 laws regulating guns in America. We are a much smaller group than the gun owners and cannot generate the kind of voting bloc that they can-this makes us a much weaker target in the minds of the legislators. And in case you hadn't noticed- Boat US isn't real keen on protecting every boater's rights. they have been remarkably silent when the PWC were attacked, I suspect that they would not expend too much effort to protect those nasty old LPB's(loud pen!s boats) either.
Remember that in 99% of the cases when a "safety" issue is raised in the legislature-it has nothing to do with safety....
We do not want the government trying to keep us "safe". That is our job, and should be our organization's first mission.
While I agree that some type of certification might be nice, please remember that we are talking about the Government(local, state, federal) getting involved. One trip to any DMV or a quick read of any book of statutes will show you how poorly government does things. We should not open that door to the legislators or the sport of performance boating might go away completely. A better example than cars and motorcycles is guns. At some point people decided that some form of registration or licensing might be a nice idea. The politicos jumped on that and have come up with over 20,000 laws regulating guns in America. We are a much smaller group than the gun owners and cannot generate the kind of voting bloc that they can-this makes us a much weaker target in the minds of the legislators. And in case you hadn't noticed- Boat US isn't real keen on protecting every boater's rights. they have been remarkably silent when the PWC were attacked, I suspect that they would not expend too much effort to protect those nasty old LPB's(loud pen!s boats) either.
Remember that in 99% of the cases when a "safety" issue is raised in the legislature-it has nothing to do with safety....
We do not want the government trying to keep us "safe". That is our job, and should be our organization's first mission.
06-04-2002, 10:40 PM
#13
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