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April 29, 2003
Open Containers And Individual Rights
Under the outrageously misleading headline, "Montana Legislature Balks at Outlawing Drunk Driving," the Associated Press reports that Montana lawmakers recently decided not to ban open liquor containers in cars and trucks. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) sneered that "there's still perhaps some carry-over from people whose view is their individual rights are being trampled on."
Under the outrageously misleading headline, "Montana Legislature Balks at Outlawing Drunk Driving," the Associated Press reports that Montana lawmakers recently decided not to ban open liquor containers in cars and trucks. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) sneered that "there's still perhaps some carry-over from people whose view is their individual rights are being trampled on."
Individual rights. How quaint.
Outlawing open containers is as much an attack on personal responsibility as on individual rights. As Chicago Tribune editorial board member Steve Chapman points out "you don't even have to drink to run afoul of this kind of law." There are countless circumstances under which a driver might have an open container sitting in the passenger seat and still be stone cold sober. To criminalize this perfectly harmless behavior is to say that drivers are somehow unable to stay sober with alcohol anywhere near them.
One Montana legislator had this to say about MADD: "It's not their business to change our culture. If they don't like our culture, they should go somewhere else."
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