Letter: Helmet law is a question of liberty

Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007 | 7:34 a.m.

Three cheers for Bob Beers and shame on the Las Vegas Sun. The Sun's Feb. 15 editorial, "Using common sense," is nonsensical to the point of making Tom Paine turn over in his grave.

Sen. Beers is profoundly correct in wanting Nevadans to be able to choose for themselves whether or not to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle. Neither Thomas Paine nor Thomas Jefferson would have approved the helmet law regardless of the claims to its efficacy. It's a question of liberty, something for which you have no use unless yours is being threatened.

The only argument the editorial raised that resonates with some people is that unhelmeted riders cost the public money. Yet, given that so few people are killed on motorcycles compared with premature deaths from alcohol, tobacco or obesity, that argument fails any test of logic or fairness.

Indeed, perhaps obesity is an impediment to the safe operation of a motor vehicle. After all, when's the last time you saw a fat NASCAR driver? Yet there are many fat people driving in the Friday night Interstate 15 Victorville-to-Las Vegas race. Mix your thinking with all the deaths on I-15 and you'll want to outlaw obese drivers on interstates.

If the Sun thinks opponents of the helmet law are "wasting everyone's time," as was stated in the editorial, why is the newspaper wasting editorial space on the issue when it could be fighting for the $3.8 billion needed in highway funding and to save our failing educational system?

Samuel J. Marber, Las Vegas