Bobby Franklin: Let’s do away with driver’s licenses
The Lone Ranger rides again.
State Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, has discovered a way to end the fractious debate over whether illegal immigrants should be able to have driver’s licenses.
Or 12-year-olds, for that matter. Just do away with the troublesome documents.
State Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, in a 2008 photo mocking his colleagues’ observation that he’s often the “Lone Ranger” on issues championed by his bills. Elissa Eubanks, eeubanks@ajc.com
Sandra Parrish with AM750 and now 95.5FM News/Talk WSB talked to Franklin about his bill this morning. Listen to the conversation here.
Likewise, CBS Atlanta today gave some noon air time to the – let’s admit – unusual legislation. Video is now online, but here’s what’s posted about Franklin’s “Right to Travel Act:”
CBS Atlanta’s Rebekka Schramm asked Franklin, “How are we going to keep up with who’s who and who’s on the roads and who’s not supposed to be on the roads?”
“That’s a great question,” Franklin said. “And I would have to answer that with a question, ‘Why do you need to know who’s who?’”
“What about 12-14-year-olds who want to drive? What would stop them?” Schramm asked.
“Well, what’s stopping them now anyway?” Franklin answered.
Let us answer Franklin’s question right away: Millions of parents are stopping them, in the name of a law that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Another roadblock: The constant fatalities, including this morning’s death of a “HERO” unit operator, that remind us that driving is serious business.
So it’s likely that we’ll continue to be burdened with driver’s licenses, despite the lawmaker’s contention that the right to burn unleaded dates back to King John. From Franklin’s HB 7:
In England in 1215, the right to travel was enshrined in Article 42 of Magna Carta: It shall be lawful to any person, for the future, to go out of our kingdom, and to return, safely and securely, by land or by water, saving his allegiance to us, unless it be in time of war, for some short space, for the common good of the kingdom: excepting prisoners and outlaws, according to the laws of the land, and of the people of the nation at war against us, and Merchants who shall be treated as it is said above.
Franklin has a concept of limited government that may sound strange to some. He has already introduced legislation demanding that state transactions be conducted in gold or silver. Franklin regularly attempts to define abortion as murder through legislation filed each year.
His answer to the debate over gay marriage? What business does the government have saying who should wed who? But that hasn’t made it into a bill. Not yet.
Addendum: Before the House adjourned today, the chamber took up the matter of the Senate’s override of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s veto of last year’s zero-based budgeting bill. House Speaker David Ralston sent the Senate’s veto message to a committee, where it will most certainly perish.
But state Rep. Bobby Franklin challenged the speaker’s ruling. The state constitution required that the House tackle the question of the veto immediately – on the floor. The vote upholding the speaker’s ruling was 164 to 1.
The Lone Ranger had struck yet again.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
For instant updates, follow me on Twitter, or connect with me on Facebook.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
251 comments Add your comment
Frontman
January 31st, 2011
5:00 pm
Katy,
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen “akin” used as a verb. Pot, meet kettle.
Nunya....following that logic
January 31st, 2011
5:02 pm
There are no laws, there is no ownership of anything, other than what God granted.
If you really believe that, I’ll give you a self-addressed-stamped envelope where you can send me all those worthless printed green rectangles in your wallet, they are simply sheets of paper that God had very little to do with.
Scripture does not specify whether I should stop at red lights, if need to wear clothes or even if it’s OK to drive on the sidewalk at the maximum speed my car will allow.
I looked into it. The phrases ’speed limit’ and ‘lane of travel’ are NOT found in scripture, nor is the term ‘Driver’s License’.
Therefore if you perish in a wreck from an unlicensed naked person driving at 110 mph on the sidewalk, it was not me, but someone who shares the view on the scriptural basis of traffic laws.
Frontman
January 31st, 2011
5:02 pm
Pinestump,
Is there a law that outlaws guns in sanctuaries? Once again, I’m trying to find out why that was ever passed in the first place. Probably some knee-jerk reaction to someone being killed in church by a crazy person with a gun. We might save one life in, oh, 650 years with that law.
Frontman
January 31st, 2011
5:05 pm
BTW, I am not saying that Rep. Franklin is a genius. He may be a complete idiot. But probability theory would tell us that even an idiot can occasionally take the right position on something – he just has to take a position enough times.
Bill Maher, are you listening?
Jack
January 31st, 2011
5:10 pm
To Peter and all others who don’t love or like the great state of Georgia, there’s a simple solution…move to another state. I have an idea, however, that those who move would find the same conditions whereever they move. Whereas the problem is not with where you are, but who you are.
joejoe
January 31st, 2011
5:25 pm
Today in the House of Representatives, Rep. Franklin challenged the speaker and the leadership of the House. The vote one for it (Franklin) and every other legislator against it. Hold on to your driver’s license. I don’t think it is going away, based on Rep. Franklin’s ability to get something passed.
NunyaWho
January 31st, 2011
5:26 pm
Pinestump –
He is an intellectual. What’s wrong with guns in religious places? They used to be. Why is today any different? Are you afraid of something? That you may be like the many pedophiles and perverts in “churches” today that prey on our children and somebody might get an idea to follow the Bible? You know the part about an eye for eye? If you haven’t done anything wrong, then you don’t have anything to worry about. I personally will continually to “try” and leave things to our perverted courts and judges although I have yet to see “true justice” EVER in one of the courts in Georgia. But they have to answer to God about those things – not me.
There are more threats to religious gatherings today than ever in modern history (do your research). Just watch the news and it’s not just in the middle east.
Not sure I follow, Frontman
January 31st, 2011
5:27 pm
While it’s true that a stopped clock is correct twice a day, it would take a very large number of proposed idiotic positions to accidentally land on one that makes sense.
There would be a certain point where those who run the legislature would make a move to impeach anyone who was sponsoring something like a thousand new bills a month, since they are not able to process that much data, and obviously if these are all random nonsense bills, then there is the legitimate question as to why this individual is doing this (just to make extra work for legislature, some character defect, and/or insanity).
But as long as Bobby keeps the volume of the crazy at a ‘1 or a 2′, then the other legislators will not care, and the voters will not notice.
Honorable Elijah Muhammad,
January 31st, 2011
5:27 pm
Frist Newt now this town idot must be a lot of Inbreeding in Marietta Ga
cbgb
January 31st, 2011
5:31 pm
This guy would probably be fun at a cookout. Until you turned your back.
Shoot first...
January 31st, 2011
5:31 pm
@Give me a Break!
If you have a right to buy a car, why do you need a license to drive it?
Should we be licencing just “buying” a car? Read the Constitution. Rights not specifically granted to the Federal government are left to the states, or the people. Sounds just grand to me. Enough socialism already. And if an Illegal Alien is caught driving, deport immediately, and confiscate their car. They shouldn’t be in the country anyway.
DLink
January 31st, 2011
5:38 pm
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/travel.htm
Someone dropped this link earlier. Kinda relates to the sex offender law in respect to where you can and cannot go through licensing or other means of restricting the freedom of the people. Very basic Constitutional law. I believe therein lies the fundamentals of always having other alternate routes around toll roads. The ability to travel freely cannot be denied, kinda thing. No money for a toll, and you’ve been denied the ability to travel within the U.S. Fascinating reading.
Frontman
January 31st, 2011
5:38 pm
You can’t impeach someone for being an idiot; if you could, the numbers in the legislature would drop by at least 60%.
You may have seen that I live in his district, but he has run unopposed for the last 2-4 election cycles, I believe. Perhaps it is high time that someone opposes him. I’ll keep an eye on what he does.
That being said, he may have a point here.
I’m sure even Cynthia McKinney occasionally says things that make sense…
Abeline Jack
January 31st, 2011
5:40 pm
What an idiot! No wonder Georgia is the laughing stock of the nation.
Brad
January 31st, 2011
5:50 pm
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/conservatives-fear-center-brain/
Mama Says
January 31st, 2011
6:04 pm
Dillutted thinking is shameful and harmful !
But this time it’s you readers who are not thinking this through.
The question of how do we stop a teen from driving is pretty obvious isn’t it ?
Instead of thinking this through to a resonable conclusion you guys actually believe the pile of B.S. that is being shoveled. We live in a country where the government has convinced the majority of folks that only government can solve problems.
Government creates problems !
They can actually take 20 to 50% of your salary and make you believe it’s ok.
the simple answer to teen drivers ? eliminate the drivers license and make it illegal for anyone under 18 to drive , duh !
OH I forgot th egovernment would have to give up millions in fees — fees imposed on us, in case you forgot.
Guess if the government ok’ed crack cocaine some of you would think it was ok to let your kids smoke it, same logic.
baby
January 31st, 2011
6:14 pm
Can’t wait to pay for my Amazon order by mailing in a couple of coins of silver
ron b
January 31st, 2011
6:19 pm
All you people who say operating a motor vehicle isn’t a right, it’s a privilege. Quote me the law and or court decisions that say this is so. There are none. Driving is a right.
http://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/right2travel.shtml
The right of a citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon in the ordinary course of life and business is a common right which he has under his right to enjoy life and liberty, to acquire and posses property, and to pursue happiness and safety. It includes the right in doing so to use the ordinary and usual conveyances of the day; and under the existing modes of travel includes the right to drive a horse-drawn carriage or wagon thereon, or to operate an automobile, thereon, for the usual and ordinary purpose of life and business. It is not a mere privilege…”Thompson v. Smith 154 S.E 579 inparamateria.
The use of the highway for the purpose of travel and transportation is not a mere privilege but a common and fundamental right of which the public and individuals cannot rightfully be deprived. Chicago Motor Coach v. Chicago, 337 III. 200, 169 Ne 22, 66 ALR JUR (1st) Highways, Sec 163 inparamateria.
bf
January 31st, 2011
6:22 pm
You’d think that maybe he would discontinue wasting valuable time as a state legislator and possibly add something relevant and constructive. People like this have nothing to add, so they just open their mouths and remove all doubt.
jconservative
January 31st, 2011
6:26 pm
Someone who knows Franklin please tell him that the Magna Carta does not have the force of law in the United States.
He sounds like a Tory.
RT
January 31st, 2011
6:45 pm
Hey Michael – I hope you get carjacked and assaulted and all of those “intrusive” cameras that monitor gas stations and highways and the cell phone tracking devices, etc. find your attackers. Perhaps then you won’t find them so offensive. I find that particularly interesting since you are “doing nothing.” The idiot moron paranoia you personify is the cause of all of the violence breaking out in this country. I hope you don’t own a gun…
Gator Guy
January 31st, 2011
6:51 pm
I love this guy. I mean we have government in every facet of our lives passing uselss “public protection” laws that, if violated, result in a slap on the wrist (if that). Unless of course your one second late mailing in that tax bill payment, then the Revenue Swat Team is kicking in your door, or as recently happened, draining your checking account. The problem is not the fact that government can’t help out if needed, its the fact that our current government (at all levels) is hopelessly broken and usually make matters worse when they do intervene!!! You go boy.
KenTanner
January 31st, 2011
7:18 pm
We have laws against murder but people go ahead and murder anyway. Therefore, we should do away with drivers’ licenses and all laws against murder.
Rick Day
January 31st, 2011
7:18 pm
I don’t agree with “abortion is murder” (although I do agree the death penalty is state sponsored murder), but I’ll be damned if I don’t think this is a tremendous idea.
Reading the comments makes me a sad citizen. Too many of you have either grown up or gotten used to unconsciously waiving your privacy rights every day; again with not even a thought.
Driver’s licenses do not keep auto fatalities down; it’s just a laminated card. Travel is not a privilege it IS a right. I agree it is not MY road it is OUR road. If there is valid reason, then so be it [mandatory licensing].Otherwise…
I am not going to go fly a plane, bus or truck because I was not trained to operate such vehicles, nor does my job require it. These are not methods of transportation for the operator, they are tools of their trade. So that argument is out the window.
The rest of the arguments dissolve into partisan bickering and smarm. You people make Bobby Franklin look like a damn genius. TRY HARDER.
Michael
January 31st, 2011
7:44 pm
Hey RT, good to know you love the government regulating every part of your life. It’s that type of idiotic hope that the good government will take care of you that will eventually wipe out the rights the founders gave us to fight against an overbearing government. You probably don’t need a gun because the government and its trackers will protect you.
Keith
January 31st, 2011
8:06 pm
The state Constitution says one thing but the House votes to override the Constitution 164-1. I think the 164 should go home for good and Bobby Franklin remain. This is the important part of the story and is hardly mentioned by the sheeple commenting.
Chris S
January 31st, 2011
8:24 pm
Getting rid of drivers’ licenses doesn’t mean 12- and 14-year-olds could drive. You just pass a law saying everyone over the age of 16 can drive. If a 12- or 14-year-old is caught driving, the result would be the same as it is now. The government would simply be issuing ID cards, not drivers’ licenses.
There are other big problems with the proposal–how do Georgia citizens drive in the other 49 states that do require drivers’ licenses–but the 12-year-old driver issue is a red herring.
RoswellMom
January 31st, 2011
8:40 pm
Sorry Bobby – I don’t think my 87 yo mother with Alzheimer’s has an unalienable god-given right nor a right granted by the US Constitution to drive.
harold
January 31st, 2011
8:40 pm
If there was no drivers license then drunk drivers would do jail time instead of just getting their license suspended. It sounds like a great idea to me.
jrev
January 31st, 2011
8:41 pm
How can someone introducing anti abortion bills be considered a proponent of limited government?
Thomas
January 31st, 2011
8:59 pm
More blog comments on this non-sense than raising the sales tax on food what travesty!
Reverie
January 31st, 2011
9:06 pm
Just a point…
We have a right to travel.
We have a privilege to drive.
Your right to travel cannot be unduly infringed. Your privilege to drive can be denied for cause or revoked for cause. You can be excluded by not meeting criteria.
Georgia Republican’s bill would do away with driver’s licenses : Federal Jack
January 31st, 2011
9:14 pm
[...] of parents are stopping them, in the name of a law that’s unlikely to change anytime soon,” Jim Galloway wrote at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Another roadblock: The constant fatalities … that [...]
Blackjack
January 31st, 2011
9:59 pm
There have to be thousands of illegals driving around Atlanta every day and every one of them is doing so without a valid drivers license (and probably insurance too). As usual only the law abiding citizens go to the bother of applying and paying for a license.
And now some think tank in DC wants the cops to stop making so many traffic arrests of illegals because it’s resulting in them being deported under 287(g). Words just fail.
Tom
January 31st, 2011
10:33 pm
I guess we have finally found Cynthia Tucker’s long-lost white brother!!!!
norma lee
January 31st, 2011
10:50 pm
A politician at long last comes forward with creative economic (not political) thinking, and all people here, including the smug political writer, Galloway, can do is call names and change the subject.
Mr. Franklin may be on to something. Open your minds and close your hearts a second…and for god’s sake show some of the civility that you political hacks have been whining about the past 4 weeks yet haven’t had the time to actually practice yourselves.
Let’s keep it simple.
Driver licensing has little to nothing to do with safety. Licensing in general is, by many people for a variety of reasons, some good, some nefarious, a way to track and control people’s behavior to some degree.
That’s the discussion to have. Do we want guaranteed safety or guaranteed liberty? I would say that licensing drivers has some desirable uses such as guaranteeing that infringements upon my liberty as a driver are resolved and the infringer can be found for resolution. But this is likely best handled by the insurance companies because they and their customers are the only two parties that have skin in the game.
The state has no real interest economically in driver licensing other than as a revenue source to fund their other liberty choking operations, but certainly has a poltical one.
Jenny Hodges
January 31st, 2011
10:50 pm
So let me get this straight: 164 Georgia Representatives voted in favor of breaking the law. And why are we supposed to respect the laws legislators pass?
ND
January 31st, 2011
11:21 pm
The rest of his ideas may or may not be practical, but his idea on gay marriage is perfect. Any two consenting adults regardless of sex get a civil union, and if you want to get married go to your local religious body and get a ceremony performed. People get to do what they want, and government gets out of the business of defining a custom that predates it by many millennia.
Need to run for office
February 1st, 2011
12:16 am
And people actually voted for this guy and he receives a salary with my tax dollars! WOW!!!
DLink
February 1st, 2011
12:36 am
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/
These are the people who would die for you. Take a good long look, it WILL be the last most will see of them. These are those who have, in fact, DIED for you. What did they die for?
Take a moment, this won’t hurt a bit. I promise.
Tracy
February 1st, 2011
1:41 am
Looking at the murder and robbery rates in parts of the State, it seems there’s nothing stopping people from doing that either. Going by his logic, lets make it legal.
dehingst
February 1st, 2011
5:06 am
Is this guy retarted ?
aps
February 1st, 2011
6:37 am
Ok folks please remember one thing. Law breakers DON’T care about the laws on the books.
Disappointed
February 1st, 2011
7:08 am
How do morons keep get elected? Politicians like to get noticed, and articles in the AJC do that for them, but I don’t see how being noticed as an idiot is a good thing.
Michelle
February 1st, 2011
7:57 am
I don’t reside in GA and Thank God I don’t. Who voted for this clown? I feel sorry for you all. Geez.
Frankie
February 1st, 2011
10:05 am
He represents the republican party….typical. THe license is one way of assuring that people have been trained to drive a car. Yes we know that there are peopple who have been driving for years with a license and still handle a vehicle like idiots, but to do away with the process is STUPID.
Marrietta you should be ashamed for continuing to support this idiot. He wants to do away with the money and use gold and silver for currency. COmmons Sense AIN’T COMMON and he definitely and IDIOT.
Michael
February 1st, 2011
5:44 pm
You people are definitely governed.
Todd Pollard
February 1st, 2011
8:25 pm
Culture
February 01, 2011
Republican Proposes Doing Away With Driver’s Licenses
Fire it up
12
206 CommentsEmail Facebook
Twitter AP File
A state lawmaker from Marietta is sponsoring a bill that seeks to do away with Georgia driver’s licenses.
State Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, has filed House Bill 7, calling it the “Right to Travel Act.”
In his bill, Franklin states, “Free people have a common law and constitutional right to travel on the roads and highways that are provided by their government for that purpose. Licensing of drivers cannot be required of free people, because taking on the restrictions of a license requires the surrender of an inalienable right.”
Read the full story at cbsatlanta.com
Comments
Like Dislike Community Disqus LoginAbout Disqus
Glad you liked it. Would you like to share?Facebook
Twitter
ShareNo thanksSharing this page …
Thanks! Close
Showing 10 of 206 comments
Sort by Popular now Best rating Newest first Oldest first Subscribe by email Subscribe by RSS
0 new comment was just posted. Show
PatriotMark 58 minutes ago
Jesus is sending us leaders like Franklin who are willing to fight for the freedom you profess to need and want. Yet you reject it when it comes. You will never be truly free, accept it. You don’t understand liberty. That’s a fact.
You clearly don’t really know what sovereignty autonomy and independence mean, and you don’t want to know.
Haskall Mullins
February 1st, 2011
8:26 pm
The goverment uses driver lisences to track the people so they can control all there activities, shake us down wuith traffic stops, track who has a gun, we are a free country we do not need the goverments premission to tracel by car, we do not need the goverments approval to do anything. The people we are close to know who we are, nobody elses business. ID cards allow the goverment to tax us.
nomus313
February 2nd, 2011
12:25 pm
So, I should have the right (under the guise of the freedom to travel back when people traversed by horse in the middle ages) to pilot a C-130 right over, say, a major city during rush hour like New York, just to see what happens? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen for a person who isn’t certified to fly a plane, not the least a C-130, over a populated place not used to plane wrecks like New York City? By gum, it’s my right to do it, you nanny statist Commies! Ah, but abortion is murder. That’s really showing a respect to life there.
I will give Rep. Franklin this much. He is the logical conclusion of the convoluted mindset of what the Republican Party in Georgia has become. Great way to make our state look foolish, Bobby.