Buckle up or go to prison

Colorado is poised to enact a law allowing police officers to stop drivers for failing to wear a seat belt.

As it stands in that state, drivers can only be cited if they are stopped for another, primary infraction and are also found to be not wearing their seat belt. This law will give cops the authority to stop a driver for no other violation than the seat belt negligence.

The bill's proponents in Colorado say passage will save about 26 lives per year in that state, and prevent more than 300 serious injuries. They're probably right. You'd have to be out of your cotton-pickin' mind to go anywhere in a car without wearing a seat belt.

But isn't that enough?

Q: Who will the state of Colorado protect with this law?
A: The drivers and passengers who would not otherwise buckle up, and not a soul more.

Non-seat-belt users have as much right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the next guy. But when every danger that they are being protect from is brought on by their own behavior, it's time for the legislature to move on to other things.

When this law passes, Colorado Highway Patrol officers will be distracted from monitoring criminally dangerous drivers (who often push the upper 80s on steep, curvy mountain roads) and hunting drug traffickers to instead conduct parenting patrols on every other driver in the state.

Today, seat belts are the "widely accepted" and "obvious" measure that every person "should do, for their own good." What will it be tomorrow? Alcohol use? Skipping the morning jog? Eating cheese?

The government is not my mommy. You shouldn't let it be yours, either.