“Preston de Ibern could only smile up from his wheelchair and attempt to focus on the tearful adults standing over him, not comprehending that a law to keep other children from near-drownings will be named for him. After the House voted 109-8 for the bill on Friday, Preston met Gov. Jeb Bush, who committed to signing a bill that requires new pool owners to pick a way to keep unsupervised children out of the water.”
— Sun Sentinel, May 6, 2000.
“Tragedies. A child drowned in a pool and the impulse is to pass a law that puts fencing around pools. Well it may not change it. Or you have a car accident and the impulse is to pass a law that deals with that unique event. And the cumulative effect of this is, in some cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law, and you’re imposing on large numbers of people burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder to protect liberty.”
— Jeb Bush, quoted yesterday by the New York Times, about the tendency to pass laws in response to tragic events.
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