Being a country where every state has a personal governing body, the US is bound to have laws that differ in everyone, or are exclusive to one. Noting this, however, some of the states chose some rather strange laws. Most of them are not enforced due to how ridiculous they can be, sometimes simply outdated, yet they’re still official. The best part to think of is who caused the laws to be made in the first place.
Starting rather simple, in the state of Washington, it is illegal to kill bigfoot. More specifically it was made an official law in Skamania County in 1969. When questioned as to why it was illegal in the first place, they declared Bigfoot as an endangered species meaning it is therefore protected. Another strange, technically animal-related law can be found in North Dakota where it is illegal to exterminate pigeons without permission. To gain permission one would have to get a permit from the Fargo Health Department, which frankly feels like a lot to simply hunt one bird.
A rather confusing one comes from the state of Minnesota where bingo is limited to 2 times a week in nursing homes or senior centers. One might think this law is just old, but no, it was in fact instated in 2015. Even visitors are barred from playing bingo with residents or just generally if it is outside of the home’s scheduled days. Wonder what chaos might have happened for such as strange, and new law, to be made. Another bingo law is in North Carolina where a bingo game can’t last more than five hours as it’s considered disruptive to run any longer.
Some more fun-killer laws can be found in Maine, where it is illegal to dance in an establishment that sells alcohol unless they have a Special Amusement Permit. Shockingly, this law is technically enforced unlike some of the others listed, causing many businesses to have to go and collect the permit.
Some car-related laws that don’t make a lot of sense can be found in both Colorado and Ohio in specific towns. Starting with Denver, Colorado, it’s illegal to drive a black car on Sunday. Personally with a rule like that, wouldn’t recommend buying a black car at all. The law most likely finds its origin in black being considered a somber color, commonly found on hearses, which may have caused some people to see it inappropriate to casually have on a religious day. Going back to Ohio, in Youngstown it is illegal to run out of gas. It’d likely be rubbing salt in someone’s wound to arrest them after they already got stranded from their car running out.
Some laws are very necessary for a society to safely run, but these laws don’t seem to protect many, just existing for entertainment for the most part in the modern day. There are many, many more of these laws possible to list, multiple options available from each of the 50 states. Many of these laws can be found on state and county websites if someone would ever want to find some themselves.
