Jacket Required: King County Requires Life Vests for Swimmers

If you plan to swim in a King County, Washington river, make sure to bring a life vest. The King County council made it illegal to swim in area rivers without a life vest. Council members Bob Ferguson, Larry Gossett, Joe McDermott, Julia Patterson, and Larry Phillips voted for the law. The only council members who had enough sense to vote against the law are Reagan Dunn, Jane Hague, Kathy Lambert, and Pete von Reichbauer.

So now, we have government telling us how to swim. How much longer before we are required to wear life vests at the beach? Maybe the next step will be to require swimmers to wear life vests while swimming in public pools. Since people can fall into swimming pools and natural bodies of water, maybe we need a law that dictates anyone within twenty feet of water has to wear a life vest.

Anyone who has ever tried to swim while wearing a life vest knows that is is a terribly uncomfortable challenge. This is an incredibly stupid law and just another ridiculous intrusion of government into the private lives of innocent people.