What are some strange laws in your state/country?

[chocovelvetcake]

My state shares it's fair share of weird, stupid laws. I live in Missouri, and here are a few laws in my state that make me scratch my head and say "wtf?":

Statewide laws:

- Single men between the ages of 21 and 50 must pay an annual tax of $1 (enacted 1820).

- If you're under the age of 21 and you're taking out household trash that contains even one bottle of alcohol, even if it's empty, you may be charged with illegal possession of alcohol.

- You can't eat clam chowder between 11:50 am - 12:48 pm on Sundays.


City laws:

- In Jefferson County, you can hold a garage sale only between the hours of 7 am and 8 pm, it can't last more than 3 days, and you can't hold more than two per year.

- In St. Louis, it is illegal for an on-duty firefighter to rescue a woman who is nude or wearing a nightgown. In order for a woman to be rescued, she must be fully clothed.

- In Kansas City, minors can't buy cap pistols, yet they can buy shotguns freely.


Sometimes, I wonder if these laws are actually real because there's no way in hell these laws can possibly exist. Some of these laws are laws only a jackass would break. For all I know, I can be doing something that's perfectly fine in my state or country, but it can be illegal in another state or country.

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

I live in Texas. I saw a sign in a park area one time that listed some weird laws we've at least had at some point. A couple of the standouts were
--If two trains meet, they both shall come to a complete stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.
--It is illegal to drive without windshield wipers...regardless of whether or not your vehicle has a windshield.

Also, I believe it's illegal to pick bluebonnets (the state flower). It's a conservation thing, but I could see "no, don't touch the blue flowers" seeming weird out of context.

 

[chocovelvetcake]

I live in Texas. I saw a sign in a park area one time that listed some weird laws we've at least had at some point. A couple of the standouts were
--If two trains meet, they both shall come to a complete stop and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.
--It is illegal to drive without windshield wipers...regardless of whether or not your vehicle has a windshield.

Also, I believe it's illegal to pick bluebonnets (the state flower). It's a conservation thing, but I could see "no, don't touch the blue flowers" seeming weird out of context.

Greetings, fellow Texan! Nice to see another Texan in the forums!

Despite being born and growing up in Texas, I've never even heard of any of these laws before lol.

 

[toastghost]

it's illegal to commit a violent crime while wearing a bulletproof vest
you can't frown at police officers (???)
handcuffs can't be sold to minors

 

[Greninjaman]

it's illegal to commit a violent crime while wearing a bulletproof vest
you can't frown at police officers (???)
handcuffs can't be sold to minors

The first and third ones I kind of get, but the second one? What?

 

[Zexy]

it's illegal to commit a violent crime while wearing a bulletproof vest

Is it legal otherwise?! :O

All the articles about weird laws in Greece state two of them : the first was a ban on all electronic games, the intended purpose was to shut down gambling arcades but it was vague enough it could include video games. Thankfully it got discontiuned.

The second one, which honestly does not feel weird at all, is not wearing stiletto heels on archaeological sites, it really causes damage to the marble. Seriously it is millennia old, brittle and sometimes even slippery, please respect it and also stay safe.

We also have supposedly compulsory voting, yet it does not get properly enforced. Assigned male at birth people have military drafting and 9-12 month training (at least there are some cases that warrant exemptions). Aside from jury duty, there can also be local election commitee duty. Plus compulsory census every 10 years, again not enforced properly yet part of if is covered by tax data.

Inside the country, the only law that feels weird and is discussed as such is Article 120 of the Constitution, also known as the Ακροτελεύτια Πράξη (basically final-final act, yeah the redundancy of that word somehow matters). It was made to pretty much make all previous 119 articles null and void in case the state basically stops being a true democracy again (something which did happen in 1967-74, the idea is to prevent it from happening again). It is also in many ways not really useful for anything and just symbolic, if things get THAT bad again we will just make a new Constitution after it like last time. Much easier...

Except... some groups with questionable beliefs on public health insist that any single COVID related state decision ever is in contravention to this article, which gives them the "right" to "dissolve" the state as far as their conscience is concerned, and basically act like the law does not apply to them, and even sue the state for "unlawful" practices against them.

 

[chocovelvetcake]

you can't frown at police officers (???)

Wtf? It's illegal to frown at police officers? :0

Istg your state's got some strange ass laws lmao.

 

[Orchid]

Apparently, throughout my state it is currently illegal to:

• Wear slippers in public after 10 PM
• Hold a puppet show in your window
• Walk backwards while eating peanuts at a concert
• Force someone to dance or ride a bike "without respite for more than 8 hours"
• Eat ice cream while standing on the sidewalk
• Eat ice cream while waiting at a bus stop
• Walk around in public with an ice cream cone in your back pocket... on a Sunday

what the heck does New York have against ice cream?

 

[chocovelvetcake]

• Eat ice cream while standing on the sidewalk
• Eat ice cream while waiting at a bus stop
• Walk around in public with an ice cream cone in your back pocket... on a Sunday

what the heck does New York have against ice cream?

Guess New York must really hate ice cream. They might as well just outlaw ice cream.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

While not necessarily a "weird" law, there is one law that I definitely would like to mention:

Here in Finland, the size of a speeding ticket or fine is calculated based on the offender's daily disposable income, meaning that richer people have to pay more for an equal offense.

For example, earlier this year, a Finnish multimillionaire got got hit with a speeding ticket of 121,000€ (approx. $130,000) for driving at 82 kph on a stretch of road with a speed limit of 50 kph. And just this month, he also received a fine of 60,000€ (approx. $65,000) for driving through a red traffic light.

 

[beryllium]

uh... over here it's illegal to:

• catch fish with your bare hands (i have the gut feeling this one has been broken a lot)
• force a monkey to smoke a cigarette
• put drinks on top of your house
• take a bath between october and march (i'm more of a shower kind of guy anyway but i can tell you this still definitely makes me a criminal)
• threaten to cut off children's ears if you're a barber
• engage in a private duel if you are a public official

good old indiana

 

[Greninjaman]

uh... over here it's illegal to:

• catch fish with your bare hands (i have the gut feeling this one has been broken a lot)
• force a monkey to smoke a cigarette
• put drinks on top of your house
• take a bath between october and march (i'm more of a shower kind of guy anyway but i can tell you this still definitely makes me a criminal)
• threaten to cut off children's ears if you're a barber
• engage in a private duel if you are a public official

good old indiana

Ok, the barber one: I can see how that would be illegal.
The rest, just

 

[JollyYoshi]

Here are some strange laws in cities in my state:

• Owning a smelly animal hide
• Bowling on the sidewalk
• Falling asleep in public
• “Injuring” or “disturbing” a rock
• Driving in reverse (I can see that but what is the point of having a reverse in a car? And how do you get out of parking spaces?)
• Hunting moths under a street lamp
• No shooting at game in a moving vehicle except for whales
• Frying gravy
• Using “used” underwear to wipe off cars in a car wash (I guess you could use new underwear)
• Peacocks have the right-away
• No riding a bicycle in a swimming pool
• Illegal to wear cowboy boots unless you own two cows (I guess someone took it literally)
• You are only allowed to spit on baseball diamonds
• It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep (what about 1,999?)
• Illegal to drink cement (decent law for safety but )

I feel like redundant and silly laws are there so you can stack multiple crimes against one person but who’s going to “commit a crime with a bulletproof vest”?

 

[chocovelvetcake]

I guess I can understand the cement one, but the others? Wtf?

 

[Viridian Beedrill]

I know sooooo many people who would be flagrant criminals if we had the cowboy boots law here in Texas. That's insane.

Also wondering how one defines "injuring" or "disturbing" a rock. And what qualifies as a rock? If you drive across a gravel driveway, is that like a hundred assault and battery cases?

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

I recently found out that in my country, it's illegal to drive with flip-flops on.

 

[Zexy]

I just got reminded of a weird one, it is a relic of the era when mobile phones and all sorts of video cameras and magnetic audio recorders were super new and kids in school would use them for all sorts of wrong purposes...

With the exception of a specifically designed technology/electronics classroom, no student is allowed to bring ANY device "capable of recording any image or sound" on school grounds.

An exception was later made for some very specific devices that students were actually given state money to buy. But any mobile phone to be seen on a student is still confiscated and a parent has to request it be returned back, upon which the teachers basically scold them for even daring to break this law (despite it being kinda irresponsible to let kids come and go without any way to communicate if needed), and if we get extra annoyingly technical, even smart watches can be a problem, or even worse, hearing aids for the students who are actually impaired of hearing (thankfully most teachers are reasonable about this and take it upon themselves to consider it an exception, but the law was like that...)