LttE - The public wants representation, not frivolous laws

Submitted to the OC Register on 6/13/2005:

State Senator Joe Dunn wrote on Monday defending his ammunition-microstamping bill, SB 357, asserting that voters want legislation like this. I certainly expect more thoughtful analysis from my own representatives.

We make laws by representation instead of by referendum to take advantage of legislators’ knowledge, experience, and public debate to protect voters from things we want that would harm us more than help us. If the good senator had sought out the expertise of other state legislators with experience in this area, he would have found that similar efforts in Maryland and New York have incurred expenses of up to $4 million a year, with zero results. Maryland’s state police is now calling for its ballistic fingerprinting program to be dismantled for its utter lack of results. Laws like these do not affect the criminal class in the least and infringe on the liberties of law-abiding citizens.