By DAVE HAMRICK
Editor-at-large

When authoritarian politicians push for more gun control laws, they often claim to be doing so in order to save lives.

On the surface, there's some validity to the claim. Guns are dangerous. The more of them there are, the more people are likely to get hurt and killed by them.

But when people start coming up with ways to do away with my rights in order to protect me, I tend to be suspicious of their motives. I tend to wonder whether some of them, at least, have a hidden agenda that is more focused on centralizing power and control than on saving lives.

If you doubt it, ask yourself why these same lovers of government control aren't picketing the Georgia Capitol during every legislative session demanding more stringent drivers license requirements and stiffer penalties for teens who drive dangerously.

Teenagers are dying by the car loads in this state, where you can get a drivers license without having ever driven a car on a public street.

Let those words sink in.

For those of you who just arrived from Peoria, Georgia's license testing is a joke. You have to pilot a car between some orange cones, stop at a “stop sign” and make a turn, all in a parking lot.

Then you get a license that allows you to drive a car anywhere, anytime, with as many passengers as you can fit in, under any circumstances.

If you are 16 years old and you get caught speeding, weaving in and out of lanes, tailgating and running red lights, you will have to pay a fine and you might have your license suspended for a short time.

Every once in awhile, the legislature passes new laws that increase penalties for dangerous driving, but when parents start being inconvenienced because their children have lost their drivers licenses, they express their displeasure and the next year the legislature repeals those laws.

And I can't help wondering, where are the cries of anguish from the gun control crowd?

Here's what would make sense:

” New license testing that takes at least a half hour and involves driving in traffic, under a variety of circumstances, using all of the maneuvers any driver has to execute every day. Yes, it would cost more money. The fee for the testing would have to be adjusted to allow for that.

” A graduated license for teens. Sorry, but there is no way 16-year-olds should have full driving privileges. The beginner license should allow driving only on surface streets and never, under any circumstances, should a 16-year-old be allowed to drive with a car load of passengers.

After a given time with a beginner license, the teen should be given a more stringent test before receiving an intermediate license, increasing the freedom a little more. Any ticket, for any offense, should double the waiting time before the intermediate test could be taken.

The final, full privilege of driving anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances should be conveyed only to those 18 or older, and only after a still more stringent test has been passed.

” License forfeiture for any teenager convicted of reckless driving.

Why make the rules tougher for teens than for adults? Because teens are more likely to be tempted to show off, to drive recklessly to impress their friends. And they don't have the experience under their belts — they're not ready to be given free rein. And because the privilege of driving is so precious to teenagers that, if they know they risk losing it, they are more likely to obey the law.

I can also hear you thinking, “Aren't you displaying some authoritarian tendencies yourself? If we can have tighter traffic laws, why can't we ban guns?”

Because the Constitution doesn't guarantee the right to drive an automobile.

Even if we assume that the founders of our nation would have granted such a right if they had known that the automobile would one day be invented, the full rights of citizenship are not conveyed until one reaches adulthood. There is still ample justification for making a young person's entry into the driving world a gradual one, and a tightly controlled one.

Who knows? If the law wouldn't allow a 16-year-old to load a car up with 12- or 13-year-olds and take them anywhere, any time, maybe those Rockdale County teens wouldn't have had a way to get to their orgies.

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