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For one, fireworks are illegal in many states because they pose too much of a danger to the users. In addition, citizens of most states now have to obtain a permit from the government to engage in what used to be common activities. Recently, the new craze among politicians in state capitols across America has been to ban smoking in virtually every public place for the sake of our own health.
In late February, the Virginia State Senate passed a bill that would have banned smoking in most public places including bars and restaurants. Fortunately, the bill was killed when a House of Delegates subcommittee voted unanimously to reject it.
In America, competition is what makes us the greatest country on Earth. Some bars and restaurants allow smoking, and others do not. For us as consumers, we have the choice of going to any public place where we feel comfortable. Anybody who has taken principles of economics would understand that different establishments cater to different parts of the population. Smoking might be considered evil in today?s world, but many people still smoke and consider smoking a part of their social life. Without a doubt, it would be a huge mistake economically and for the sake of our own liberties to impose a public smoking ban on all public places in the state of Virginia.
In Montgomery County, Maryland politicians have made national headlines for their intense desire to create the ultimate politically correct society. Aside from banning Santa Claus from a Christmas tree lighting and deeming high school mascots related to Native Americans as offensive, Montgomery County was one of the first jurisdictions to enact a sweeping smoking ban that made all public places, including restaurants and bars, smoke-free.
Not only has the ban infringed on the freedoms of citizens who live in the county, but many business owners have filed a lawsuit against the county government claiming that the smoking ban has severely hurt their establishments.
According to the Restaurant Association of Maryland, business in the county has dropped by about 30 percent on weeknights and 50 percent on the weekends. Most of their former patrons simply go elsewhere in Maryland or to neighboring Washington, D.C. where smoking is allowed.
Most proponents of smoking bans argue that they are for the good of the entire public and not part of the government?s yearning to eat away at our rights little by little. However, the new buzz is around taking the next step to ban smoking in every place that is outdoors ? including your own personal yard. If politicians have their way, smoking could become illegal in the privacy of your own home. It?s not always accurate to portray any regulatory measure as the beginning of a slippery slope, but this is a prime example of one.
More recently, the Virginia bill received national headlines because of our state?s long legacy of association with the tobacco industry.
Furthermore, Virginia is home to the worldwide headquarters of Philip Morris. But Virginia has a much more important legacy ? one that represents the birthplace of American freedom as we know it today. During the founding of our nation, the fathers of the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution intended this country to be a place where individual freedom reigns supreme over any state or federal law that infringed on that freedom. When the House of Delegates rejected this expansive smoking ban, they rightfully maintained this historical reputation.
Make no mistake; there is nothing wrong with a private business or organization telling citizens that they should not smoke.
However when our government gets involved to tell us what is best for ourselves, they are verging dangerously close to a type of tyranny that America usually stands up against.
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LOL. Quit whining. Are you afraid you are going to die of second hand smoke. The chances of that are quite slim, I can assure you. Whats wrong is banning smoking because of whiners like you. Suck it up.
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You are so full of it! Are you a Dr? How can you say that dieing as a result of second hand smoke "is quite slim". I have asthma as a result of growing up in a home full of chain smokers. I suffered from Bronchitis,Pneumonia and countless asthma attacks from the time I was 6 mths old till I moved out when I was 16. The hospital was my second home. My health was not the only thing affected by the inconsiderate people in my home. I went to school smelling like a foul ashtray everyday. (Face it smokers stink!) My classmates were cruel to say the least. This caused me to be withdrawn and introverted. This is why I got married when I was 16!
People like you are selfish and inconsiderate. If you want to trash your health that is your business but don't blow smoke in my face, ruin my appetite in the restaurants but most of all don't ruin the lives of children who have no voice! I had no say when I was a child and now I suffer everyday for it! By God my children, or yours, will not suffer the same fate! For once I am happy the government stepped in! Someone had to stop you!
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There is a difference between places that are open to the general public; such as the post office, the courthouse, or a public park, and private establishments that are open to the public; such as bars and restaurants. Bars and restuarants are owned and operated privately for the purpose of profit.
When someone comes into my bar, they are a guest in my building. They were not forced to come in, they did not have to come in, and they do not have the right to come in. I have the right to invite you and you have the right whether or not to accept. If I allow smoking im my bar and you don't prefer to be around it, then you don't have to stay. It's my establishment and I can allow the legal activity of smoking cigarettes if I so choose.
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I understand that people choose to come into your bar but the problem is that there are so many other places people smoke that are unavoidable such as outside. It is easy enough to avoid comming into a place do to fere of smokers but you have to go outside to get from one place to another and if there is a smoker it can be immposible to avoid the smoke if you don't know were the smoke is going to be coming from. I am ok with someone smoking at your bar but not outside as going outside is unavoidable. I am guessing you never thought about that though.
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do you have a college degree and if so what was your major ?
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I am sick of smokers whining. I just lost both my mother to lung cancer from second hand smoke and my sister to throat cancer from smoking. They both died very painful horrendous deaths in which I witnessed.
My new neighbor is a smoker. This is a nonsmoking apartment complex because of the damage smoke does to the buildings, however smoking is allowed outside and the neighbor (smokers' whole lives I have seen is about their next cigarette because of their ADDICTION. My neighbor's carcinogenic cigarette smoke from smoking outside wafts into my patio space and into my open windows. Smokers also do not realize the stench of cigarettes because they have coated their noses and throats with the tar and smoke that kills their sense of smell and eventually them.
Cigarette smoke embeds itself into the air and goes everywhere air does. Oh yeah, smokers' rights ADDICTION seem to always trump others' right to breathe. A person's right to live should trump smokers' rights to smoke.
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if you don't want what ever's outside your windows to get in, close the god damn windows.
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Get over yourself, why don't you whine more about alcohol and how it impairs a person from walking, driving, talking, not to mention fighting, burping, throwing up, because they make themselves sick, and how many people alcohol has killed innocent people to as well as children. You whine about smokers, whine about how you sit behind a car's exhaust and breathing the fumes, don't blame cigarette smoke on the death's of your family when other causes are more of a factor.
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heck yea that is so true
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Smokers choose to smoke wile other people do not choose to inhale second hand smoke. The none smokers have a valid reason to want fresh air but the smokers do not have a valid reason to smoke.
The people who did not pass these laws did so because they were afraid that the smokers would not reelect them. To counteract this I believe that everyone who is for a ban on smoking should threaten to not reelect them if they do not pass a law to at least ban smoking in all public places. We should make petitions to ban smoking and have a bunch of people sign them in order to ensure that our voices are heard.
We should also boy cot any store that cells tobacco enough to make the risk of the boy cot stronger than the gain of celling tobacco.
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Banning smoking is not taking peoples rights away as it would be for the safety of everyone. Banning something for no reason or for a silly reason would be an attack on human rights. Smokers are complaining that their "rights" are being threatened by a ban on smoking but the real threat to human rights is forgetting that none smokers have the right fresh air. Arguing for the right to smoke is like arguing that you have the right to murder a person. If you hurt yourself that is your own choice but if you screw up my health than it is a violation of my rights even if there is no law against it.
The only people who could possibly be against a ban on smoking are those who are smokers and those who are uneducated on the effects of second hand smoke.
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Didn't we learn anything from prohibition or the 'war on drugs'. Banning tobacco would have as much success as those efforts and only serve to increase crime and a new profit center for gangs and the mob. You sanctimonious non-smokers need to wise up and face facts. Do you own a car, barbeque or use commercial products in your home? Do you really believe that getting a whiff of tobacco smoke on the street is going to kill you before any of the other pollutants we are exposed to every day. You have a better chance of getting kill by a drunk driver or texting teen.
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Liberty allows us to behave according to our own free will, and take responsibility for our own actions.
Action-Entering the building
Action 2- Staying or Going.
Responsibility- Refer to action 2.
If your to stupid/lazy to find the exit and move on to an establishment that shares your views on smoking you deserve a lower life expectancy for the good of man kind.
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What about peoples right to not have to smell smoke whenever they go anywhere. Smoking should be banned
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There are several false assumptions that people who are against a smoking ban make.
1. "Smoking is a right."
Smoking is actually a privilege not a right. There is no amendment that protects smoking and smoking is a non-essential activity. You do not need to smoke to survive or do anything else that you need to do. In order for something to be a right it must be either harmless, or necessary, or both and smoking is not necessary or harmless.
2. "People who come in contact with second hand smoke must have chosen to come in contact with it by walking into private property such as a bar."
Private property is not the only place people come into contact with second hand smoke at. People also come into contact with second hand smoke on public property such as on sidewalks and while it may be possible to avoid private property such as bars it is not always possible to avoid some places such as sidewalks.
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People who are against a smoking ban also use a logical fallacy when they try to argue that because there are things more harmful than second hand smoke such as car exhaust that smoking should remain legal and second hand smoke is not really that harmful. This is a fallacy in the since that one substance being harmful says nothing about whether another substance is harmful. Just because something like car exhaust is more harmful than smoking and is legal is no reason not to ban smoking.
If banning smoking but not banning other things more harmful is a contradiction all that means is that either banning smoking or not banning other more harmful things is wrong or both or wrong but it says nothing about which is wrong.
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