Why do people need swimming pools? There is absolutely no chance you will ever use it to defend yourself. Not only is there no constitutional provision protecting the swimming pool, it is classified as an “attractive nuisance,” meaning owners are expected to take special care to make sure children do not come into unsupervised contact with the swimming pool. Despite this legal classification, and special attention paid by the CPSC, children continue to drown.
The problem, as I see it, is the “pool culture.” Pool “nuts” raise their children around pools, and let them swim at a very early age. Sometimes children are introduced to the pool when they can barely walk. What should we do? Some Suggestions
Make any prospective pool owner wait one year after filing a pool application with the CPSC. The “waiting period.”
The pool application must include a. reasons for needing a pool, b. psychological information, c. criminal history of the pool applicant, d. personal information concerning the applicant sufficient for the CPSC to conduct a background check.
During the waiting period the CPSC shall conduct a background check.
The applicant must make the intended location of the pool available to CPSC inspectors. CPSC inspectors shall investigate applicants at random to ensure that pool guidelines are being followed. Such inspections may be performed at any time during the application process, or thereafter for the life of the pool.
All pool applicants must successfully complete a CPSC approved pool safety course during the waiting period or the application will be denied.
The CPSC shall have the authority to deny any pool application for any reason which is suppored by evidence.
Seems reasonable, certainly not unprecedented, right?
There’s new “Pool Locks” out on the market right now, let’s see about mandating them as well.
Although, with questions about the constitution, it might be easier to let the state and local governments each come up with whatever they think is the best way to handle the situation. Each of them will likely come up with their own regulations (such as licenses to carry conceiled pools?) that will be different from area to area.
I’m sure the nationwide pool contractors won’t mind researching the codes in different areas before installing their pools.
Arizona is a “shall issue” state and has a lot of rules concerning pool locks, fencs, etc. but we still drown a frightening number of children every year here. Even more horrifying are the near drownings that leave a child with no mind but a functioning body.
Not much of a debate here, you won’t get many folks to argue agaisnt pool safety.
Make pools a crime and only criminals will have pools. 'course concealed pools are really wet to carry in your pocket - and they don’t provide any defense unless you have them filled.
Actually, there are lots of regulations on pools. You have to have a fence and special insurance. There are building codes regarding their construction - which is inspected. Getting a building permit creates a de facto waiting period (not a year, unless your city runs even slower than mine, but a couple weeks) Lots of pool control. Probably not as much as I’d like (my neighbor just put one in this fall, and already my three year old thinks its quite attractive), but I’m a wacky liberal who thinks everything should be controlled…
You’ll get our pools when you wrench them out of our chapped, sunburned, Coppertone-slimed hands*.
Plus you’ll have to deal with David Hasselhoff of the National Pool Association.
*I am not a pool owner. I discovered that you could get much the same benefit by digging a shallow pit, dropping cash into it, adding gasoline and igniting it. About as entertaining as the real thing and much less hassle.
He he… outlaw swimming pools but make sure we teach 12 year olds how to fire hand guns and drive ATVs; and hang anyone who opposes the idea of issueing shotguns and rifles to every US family. Better drain every river and lake too and get mother nature to fill out a CPSC application, and make her wait a year while we check her physcological background and thouroughly examine her reasons for having water over a foot deep anywhere :D. But whatever you do, pleeeeeeease don’t suggest that parents keep an eye on kids playing near water!!! Now THAT would be down right silly :rolleyes:.
Maybe what we need here is a few constructive ideas about how pools can be made safer.
The first thing we need is more laws. You can’t have adequate safeguards unless you have enough laws. I suggest a moratorium on pool construction and usage until the applicable pool laws are sufficient to neatly stack into a lifeguard tower.
Then we have to determine who should be allowed unrestricted access to a pool. This is simple, though politically incorrect. Everyone knows that fat floats, so the obvious starting point is to grant access to those people with the “natural ability to float”. Buoyancy could be determined with a simple test – the applicant would be held under water until his/her lungs fill with water. Once the lungs have filled the applicant will be released. If he/she is still able to float, a “pool permit” will be issued.
wait a minute… We don’t need to license or regulate pools; let’s license and regulate water! Keep track of how much water people use during one season, then only let them use that much water next season! I hear they use this in Japan and it works quite nicely.
