Repeal The Virginia Radar Detector Ban!!!

[Snickers62]

As you may know, Virginia is the only state that bans the use and sale of detectors. There is no evidence that the detector ban increases highway safety. Our nation’s fatality rates have fallen consistently for almost two decades. Virginia’s fatality rate has also fallen, but not any more dramatically than it has nationwide. Research has even shown that radar detector owners have a lower accident rate than motorists who do not own a detector.

Maintaining the ban is not in the best interest of Virginians or visitors to the state. I know and know of people that will not drive in Virginia due to this ban. Unjust enforcement practices are not unheard of, and radar detectors can keep safe motorists from being exploited by abusive speed traps. Likewise, the ban has a negative impact on Virginia’s business community. Electronic distributors lose business to neighboring states and Virginia misses out on valuable sales tax revenue.

Radar detector bans do not work. Research and experience show that radar detector bans do not result in lower accident rates, improved speed-limit compliance or reduce auto insurance expenditures.
• The Virginia radar detector ban is difficult and expensive to enforce. The Virginia ban diverts precious law enforcement resources from more important duties.
• Radar detectors are legal in the rest of the nation, in all 49 other states. In fact, the first state to test a radar detector ban, Connecticut, repealed the law – it ruled the law was ineffective and unfair. It is time for our Virginia to join the rest of the nation.
• It has never been shown that radar detectors cause accidents or even encourage motorists to drive faster than they would otherwise. The Yankelovich – Clancy – Shulman Radar Detector Study conducted in 1987, showed that radar detector users drove an average of 34% further between accidents (233,933 miles versus 174,554 miles) than non radar detector users. The study also showed that they have much higher seat belt use compliance. If drivers with radar detectors have fewer accidents, it follows that they have reduced insurance costs – it is counterproductive to ban radar detectors.
• In a similar study performed in Great Britain by MORI in 2001 the summary reports that "Users (of radar detectors) appear to travel 50% further between accidents than non-users. In this survey the users interviewed traveling on average 217,353 miles between accidents compared to 143,401 miles between accidents of those non-users randomly drawn from the general public." The MORI study also reported "Three quarters agree, perhaps unsurprisingly, that since purchasing a radar detector they have become more conscious about keeping to the speed limit..." and "Three in five detector users claim to have become a safer driver since purchasing a detector."
• Modern radar detectors play a significant role in preventing accidents and laying the technology foundation for the Safety Warning System® (SWS). Radar detectors with SWS alert motorists to oncoming emergency vehicles, potential road hazards, and unusual traffic conditions. There are more than 10 million radar detectors with SWS in use nationwide. The federal government has earmarked $2.1 million for further study of the SWS over a three-year period of time. The U.S. Department of Transportation is administering grants to state and local governments to purchase the SWS system and study its effectiveness (for example, in the form of SWS transmitters for school buses and emergency vehicles). The drivers of Virginia deserve the right to the important safety benefits that SWS delivers.



http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/rep...r-detector-ban

[kawasaki2008]

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO FIGHT SEATBELT LAWS?

Seatbelt laws cross the line between what is acceptable and what is not in free society. Seatbelt laws assert the right of government to interfere in your private life. Seatbelt laws establish the principle of the "victimless crime"; that is, to punish you even though you have done no harm. Seatbelt laws set a dangerous precedent. If government has a right to force you to wear a seatbelt, then government has the right to tell you what to wear, what to eat, when to get up, when to go to bed, what you may do or not do for recreation, in short, to take away all your rights as an adult. It says that the people are children and that government is their parent. That was the nightmare envisaged by George Orwell in his novel, "1984".
Governments never use such rights in a benevolent way. Such rights are always abused. Under the cynical and hypocritical pretext of only being concerned about your welfare, such laws are used as a pretext for the police to stop you, harass you and rip you off. They open the door to the police state.
Even if seatbelts were of some benefit, no sane person would use them voluntarily. The chance of a safe driver being killed in an automobile accident is less than one in a billion vehicle miles. Sane people act on the basis of probability, not possibility. A person who wears a seatbelt voluntarily is a mentally ill person who suffers from anxiety neurosis. Life is full of danger. We might get hit by a truck when we cross the street; we might get shot in a hold-up when we go to the bank; we might get hit by lightning when we go outside. But sane people do not normally wear bullet proof vests or carry lightning rods.
Bullet proof vests and lightning rods are known to be beneficial. The same cannot be said of seatbelts. Seatbelts are, in fact, of no benefit but rather increase the chance of being killed or injured in an automobile accident. This has been shown by extensive research which has been published at www.safetychoice.org and THE SAFETY CHOICE COALITION. Seatbelts laws and seatbelt propaganda are a cynical scam designed to sell seatbelts and give the police an excuse to stop people, harass them and rip them off. The details of how the government does this are also to be found at the above mentioned web-sites with documention from the government's own files.
While the patriot act is undoubtedly a danger to our safety and liberty in the long run, not many people have as yet been victimized by the patriot act. It is through the seatbelt laws that the largest numbers of Americans are victimized by their government. It is the seatbelt laws which represent the most immediate source of danger to our liberty and our safety. It is the seatbelt laws which have set the precedent for other Orwellian laws such as motorcycle helmet laws, bicycle helmet laws, "personal flotation device" laws and on and on. Because government has gotten away with the seatbelt scam, new Orwellian laws are constantly being introduced in our state and federal legislatures. Unless we can get these laws repealed we can kiss our liberty goodbye.
Visit www.safetychoice.org or THE SAFETY CHOICE COALITION to educate yourself on this issue. We must get 23 USC 153, 157, 402, 405 and 406 repealed if we are to preserve our liberty. The hour is late. Already a huge organization is in place, run by NHTSA and funded by hundreds of millions of dollars of tax payer money, to spread lying propaganda about seatbelts and to pressure and pay state police to use threats, harassment and intimidation to force people to use these dangerous devices. Numerous phony front organizations are being used, maskerading as independent organizations but in fact funded and controlled by NHTSA. These organizations lobby, pressure and bribe state legislatures to pass ever more draconian seatbelt laws, using millions of dollars of federal funds, as does NHTSA itself. Public relations firms, such as Campaigns on Demand, Inc. and Media Strategies, Inc. are hired with millions of dollars of tax payer money to run campaigns of lying propaganda. There are dozens of phony web sites, fake letter writing campaigns pretending to be from ordinary citizens, in short, every dirty trick in the book is being used to promote this scam, at taxpayer expense.
But of course all this is just the opening wedge. It set the stage for the airbag scam, the helmet laws, the "personal flotation device" laws, the "safety inspections" without warrant or probable cause. It set the stage for the patriot act.
Ask your senators and representatives to repeal 23 USC 153, 157, 402, 405 and 406; and to sequester the seatbelt money in P.L. 109-115.