Legal to sell, illegal to own

[Odd Water]

Mel Brook's Blazing Saddles. One of my top fav movies ever.

Guess I've got a movie to watch.

That movie is a topic in of itself. On TV they edit out fart noises, but they keep the old woman using a racial name calling line.

 

[Aris Khandr]

It's kind of the same thing for stereo systems. It's not illegal to have them, but if loud enough, a cop can pull you over, and give you a ticket for noise pollution. I have been lucky, and haven't gotten ticket yet. I've been given a warning though.

That one is bit more flexable, as one's volume can be adjusted. The tinting on a windown doesn't change by a button. But that is more like saying going 120 mph is against the law, so why do they sell cars that can do that? They enforce it when a person chooses to push the gas pedel more, as they would when you turn your music up more. The tinting is more of an absoulte, it either is legal or not. Your speed or sound is adjustable.

Tinting isn't illegal. Tinting past a certain level of darkness is. It's legal to sell because the presumption is that if you get it tinted past that certain level, it is for private roads, shows, et cetera. On public roads, it is illegal. There are legitimate uses for tinting that dark, but driving your car down the highway is not one of them.

 

[Rayne870]

It's also a matter of public versus private space. The government owns the roads and can more easily create a regulation against something in that space than it can pass a law to ban something on private property. It is weird, but it makes sense from that perspective.

Exactly this. In many areas you can legally drive cars as long as they are not on roads, and in some you can drive on roads but not highways, without licenses.

 

[Nyaliva]

Actually you just made me think of a similar situation with Amercan law:

It's legal (and apparently a God-given right) to own firearms and yet it's illegal to shoot people. What the hell else do you expect people to do with them??? Hand-guns aren't for hunting and they're only useful for protection if the person you need protecting from doesn't also have a gun, which is rarely the case.

OT: Unfortunately, when it comes to things like this it's rarely possible to make selling these things illegal unless they're actually dangerous to people's health, and the fact that the governemnt themselves use this service means that it can't really be illegal to do, so they do the next best thing, make it illegal to have unless you have permission, then all the ownace is on the person who purchases it as to whether they want to do something illegal. Businesses do it because they get money for it and it's the fault of the people who asked for it. If businesses are forcing people to have their windows tinted to this degree or tinting them darker than the person asks then they should be punishable, unfortunately it'd likely only be through sueing after the person who got it has already been prosecuted.

Welcome to the world of law!!

 

[pwned123456]

just the windows in the front like the windshield driver and passenger any window behind those three are free to be tinted and in a lot of cases come tinted (they aren't allowed because of crashing hazard ok!)

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

To protect the merchant. They're not responsible if the person goes out and does something illegal. In the US, it's possible to buy a motorcycle without a license. That's scary to think about.

 

[Bek359]

One semi-example of this (that actually makes sense) is something I saw about prostitution in one of the Scandinavian countries, Sweden, I think it was. It's legal to sell sex there, but not to buy it. This is to place the legal burden on the fucker going to prostitutes, rather than the prostitutes themselves, who are often little better than slaves. It has been extremely successful in reducing prostitution in that country.

 

[Kesimir]

We should propose a law that makes it illegal to pass a law of any kind... but then how would we get it passed? Oh self referential paradoxes, you win again!

 

[imperialreign]

This is something I've seen and been hearing about for several years and it never really made sence to me when you put it all together.

In the States, there are many cities and areas where it is illegal to have window tinting on a vehical that is darker then a specific degree/shade. There are various reasons, and of course exceptions such as limos, government vehicles, etc.

But in the same cities and areas it is legal for businesses to sell kits to put such tinting on a personal vehical or such, or even provide the survice to put it on themselves for the costomer, and as soon as the car is driven off the grounds it is considered illegal. I've seen cars ticketed right out of such places as soon as they pull off.

It just seems weird to me. Shouldn't it be illegal to even put this stuff on then? (Or just make it legal fully.) It just comes off to me like saying its legal for a person to sell a dangerious chemecal or gun from a store or a contraband item, but illegal for the person to have it once they walk out the door. Shouldn't something of this nature be illegal to even sell or do then?

I see this a lot . . .

I live in the state of Virginia, and I'm a licensed Virginia State Inspector (y'know, a mechanic who decides if a vehicle gets that nice, pretty oragen inspection decal or not) . . .

There's and absolute TON of equipment that places like Advance Auto, Auto Zone, Car Quest, etc. sell, but doesn't pass inspection (as it's not "approved" equipment).

It never fails, too - frequently customers, upon hearing their vehicle fails inspection for these accessories, complain "why aren't they legal if the stores sell them?"

The simple answer I always reply with - read the packaging. It clearly states the equipment is meant for OFF ROAD USE ONLY. For the equipment to be approved, it has to be submitted to the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) or the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). If approved, the equipment is catalogued and given a number, and the part itself is stamped with said number during manufacturing. Look at the factory headlights on your car, you'll see either an SAE or DOT number somewhere on them . . .

As well, some of the "dress-up" equipment (like window tinting) is sold as it's intended for use on business vehicles (where the laws are more lax), or show cars . . . which is a whole other category. The "trailer queens," so-to-speak. The cars that are carted from one show to the next, and are never driven on the street.

Now, some of the other items are down to the city or county laws. Window tinting is one. We no longer inspect window tint, unless it distorts the drivers view out of a window. But, the cities don't want everyone running around with dark tint . . . the explanation I've heard, from a VA state trooper, is that with dark window tinting, an officer might not see if a passenger in the vehicle is pulling a weapon. I can understand that logic . . .



-EDIT-

good god the grammar mistakes in this post! Posting too damn late and tired again

 

[Drakane]

I think part of the reason is, its not one standard across the US. My old car had very dark tinted windows that would have been illegal in many states, but wasn't (to my knowledge) illegal where I live. If you make it illegal to apply/buy so dark of tint (which as previously stated by other posters can have legal uses outside of the ones the OP mentioned) because it is illegal in one state, the owner of the vehicle can either go to a more lenient state and have it done or order it from a state that it is allowable on the interwebs and do it yourself, thus just losing business and taxes for your own state. And if you are very dedicated to circumventing the law, you register your vehicle from a different state that has more lenient laws, yes this takes some doing but I've lived in a state for several years still using my prior states tags, and though the tint is still illegal cops tend to be more lenient since you "don't live in the state."

TLR... the laws aren't all the same in the states making it so you can exploit loopholes to still get it done.

 

[dmase]

They actually sell kits to tint windows yourself on Amazon. There are actually some cities that are considered dry cities that don't drink alcohol but you can get it in from outside easily obviously. Its because its to difficult to control.

 

[dakorok]

The only law against tinted windows that I am aware of is if it's the driver's side window. This is for a simple reason: with that tint, a police officer can't see what the driver is doing, making it a potential safety hazard for the officer.

 

[CyanLink]

See this shit everywhere when it comes to my knife collection. Yes I collect knives.

 

[PneumaticSuicide]

I'm a window tinter in Australia and it's a similar situation, although i do frequently tint cars for the police in darker than legal films. I believe that every state in the USA has different tinting laws and in some cases you can't even have the 2 front windows tinted. In Australia though its more of an insurance issue when it comes to the darkness of film rather than police even though its illegal.