Businesses that sell spraypaint and etching materials, already prohibited from selling to minors, would not be able to ring up the items on a register without scanning a driver’s license or entering a birthdate, under a new bill before City Council.
Councilman Darrell Clarke doesn’t want to stop there — he introduced another bill Thursday requiring the same for alcohol and tobacco sales, though the state Legislature would have final say on those state-regulated products.
Clarke is unsure whether a scanner can be set up to scan only a person’s birthdate from the magnetic strip on their driver’s license or other official identification. Taking more information from someone's ID to buy a commercial product would likely raise a host of privacy issues.
But even if employees were forced only to manually enter a birthdate, it may have the effect of encouraging them to check IDs, which Clarke said is not happening and the city bears the graffiti stains to prove it.
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