Bad news for Conneticut Atv'ers

[YAMAHA_Jim]

This is definately not good at all.....

January 27, 2005

Attempt to ban ATV’s, dirt bikes and pocket bikes in Connecticut
- press release -

Connecticut ATV’ers have come under fire from three State Legislators.

Senator Finch from Bridgeport, 22 districts, wants to ban the sale and use of pocket bikes and ATV’s in the state.

Representative Ryan, district 139, wants to pass a law that would require universal registration for all ATV’s regardless of where they are operated.

Representative Chaplin wants to increase fees for registration, and yet the state still ignores a law passed in 1986 that requires the state to provide riding areas for ATV‘s!

For all the details, please log onto www.cttrailusers.com.

Let them know what you think; call or e-mail today:

Representative Clark Chapin

1-800-842-1423

Clark.Chapin@housegop.state.ct.us

Senator Bill Finch

1-800-842-1420

Finch@senatedems.ct.gov

Representative Kevin Ryan

1-800-842-8267

Kevin.Ryan@cga.ct.gov

[YAMAHA_Jim]

I suggest if you email them that you write a good positive letter and no hate mail or bad remarks.

[grundlegrabber]

You connecticuit guys all need to write letters to your legislators voicing your opinions. Be courteous and professional about it. If nobody speaks up, the tree huggers will win and riding will be banned, and you will end up like the guys in Jersey, where ATVs are all but outlawed in the entire state. We here in PA have had similar problems, and laws are getting more restrictive every year! Make your voice heard!

[New2ATC]

I think I am the only one in CT but I will E-mail them. Around where I live, they have closed the pits where we used to ride, and the feild that I had learned to ride in. We have permission to ride in a small feild, so thats where we are going to have to go to ride for now I guess, Unless we want to have the cops come here because we were riding in a place called "the bowl" with a 4 foot deep mudding pit. I will definately look into this, and gather up a few positive things about riding. I do not want riding in CT to be banned especially because my friend was going to start racing in a begginer MX track about 5 minutes away. If he gets riding taken away, than he has nothing else, untill he goes to main.. I will gather up all my friends and we will do something about this. We will have petitions, and we will all call/write to these people and we will try to prove a point. Sorry for the long message..
-Patrick
Pee'd off at CT since 1989.

[New2ATC]

Just told my mom about this, and she doesnt think that CT will ban the use/sales of ATV's and such. She said that they might add some more restrictions about it, but if they ban it CT will loose money, both from the sales of the ATV's, and the registration, which is about 75.00 per ATV. I dont know about this, but as I had previously stated, I will get all my friends, and their friends and so on, and we will do our best to put a stop to this evil thinking.

[Billy Golightly]

Just remember, once its gone its hard to bring it back...Good luck all you CT people, I sure dont want this to happen there because it means it will probably start in other areas too.

[TimSr]

Just told my mom about this, and she doesnt think that CT will ban the use/sales of ATV's and such. She said that they might add some more restrictions about it, but if they ban it CT will loose money, both from the sales of the ATV's, and the registration, which is about 75.00 per ATV.

This is dangerous thinking. What they do is propose something drastic like taking away all your rights, that they know wont pass, and they then offer to only to only take away half of your rights and call it a "compromise". Then a year later they do it over again, and take away half of your remaining half. Its called "incrementalism". Ask any gun owner how that works. The revenue argument was used by tobacco companies, and we see where that went. They dont mind killing a revenue source because the same poeple are happy to raise other taxes or propose new ones.

[Apollo]

CT riders make your voices heard. I can't imagine not being able to ride.

[Glenn J]

There was a hearing in Hartford this morning with the Transportaion Committee. I wasn't able to attend (work), but I'm hoping to view the minutes once they are posted on the Connecticut General Assembly website. Also, I beleive a few individuals from some local ATV boards were going to go.

This is a very scary thing to have happen. I honestly don't feel this really has much of a chance of passing, but it's more of the "thought that counts" here. We have NO legal riding spots here in CT.....none, zip, zero, nadda. The only places you can legaly ride are: Your own land or private land with written permission and a CT registration. Yep, the state gives you no place to ride, but wants you to register when riding on private land. And to kick us while we're down, they take all the money from ATV registrations and dump it into the "genearal fund". I refuse to register my machine in this state. A lot of us from CT ride out of state in Western Mass. From me, the areas are about 1.5 to 2 hours away. It stinks to drive, but it's better than nothing.

What bothers me is that this issue came up. There are laws on the books (obvious ones, like riding on the street is illegal, as is trespassing) but they want to take the issue further. It annoys the hell out of me that people can't deal with current laws, so they just want to write more.

IMHO, we're really over regulated these days, but I could write 6 pages on that alone.....