I’m happy to introduce to you a guest poster, Allison Dean. Allison has written several articles on Tribal Blogs and she was kind enough to write one for Redhead Ranting too. Enjoy the crazy laws!

Illinois

HB 2860 is a transportation act that went into effect on January 1st of 2012. According to the act, “A county, or a municipality with less than 2,000,000 inhabitants, including a home rule county or municipality, may not use an automated traffic law enforcement system to issue violations in instances where a motorcyclist enters an intersection against a red signal indication when the red signal fails to change to a green signal within a reasonable period of time because of a signal malfunction or because the signal has failed to detect the arrival of the motorcycle due to the motorcycle’s size or weight.” Effectively, not only may motorcyclists run a red light after waiting a “reasonable” amount of time if they’re in a city with under 2 million people, but they may not be ticketed for running the red light. What’s ironic about this law is this: It is a law that allows motorcyclists and bicyclists to legally break a law.

Michigan

Effective this year in Michigan is a law that allows children under the age of 10, which was previously the age cut-off, to use a firearm to hunt. Children must have a license and be accompanied by a mentor who is at least 21 years old. Here’s what’s funny about this law:

1. Children 10 and under have REALLY LONG attention spans and will probably NEVER accidently shoot their guns.
2. Have we all forgotten about Dick Cheney? He’s a grown man and even he accidently wounded someone while hunting. Hunting accidents happen frequently; giving a gun to a child is TERRIBLE idea.
3. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources Director Rodney Stokes said about it: “This is a great opportunity for Michigan’s youth. Our youngsters can start hunting earlier with a safe program, which can have a lifelong impact on their interest in conservation and natural resources.” Last anyone checked, hunting entailed killing animals, not conserving them; sure hunting is legally allowed or disallowed based on animal population control, but no hunter goes hunting to conserve animals.

Georgia

A new law effective this year in Georgia changes the legal definition of golf carts to “personal transportation vehicles.” The purpose of this law is to mandate safety measures/accessories on golf carts. Interestingly, because of the law change, local governments may pass ordinances that allow golf cars to be driven not only on residential streets, but city streets. But why stop there? Let’s get golf carts legal on interstates and turnpikes. As you can see on the right, golf carts are dangerous enough on the golf course.

New York

Residents of New York may no longer throw away electronics, such as computers, video game consoles, portable music players, etc. Instead, they must take or send them to a recycling center. The idea is for waste and hazardous materials to not end up in landfills. Taking a step back, what’s odd is that at some point items will not be recyclable. Where will the non-usable parts go if not in a landfill? Probably to Grandma’s house.

California

In California, a new law was mandated that made it illegal for gay or disabled people who made important contributions to the world to be excluded from educational materials and teachings. What’s truly crazy about this is that it even had to be mandated. Regardless of anyone’s views on homosexuals or prejudices against disabled people, their contributions are the same none-the-less.

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Allison Dean is a writer bringing to us odd new laws that went or will go into effect this year.
Allison also writes about medical malpractice attorneys.