I have been reading a lot of stories lately about all the problems with ATVs in the state and I think everyone is missing the problem completely.

These machines are made to run on all terrain. Just look at the commercials on TV and watch them dig up dirt and rocks and throw up dust when they run over bare ground.

The first thing everyone wants to do is play the blame game. Either it’s teenagers, drunks or idiot young adults. I have seen a lot of 50-year-olds who don’t act any better.

But this is the whole point; it’s not the people as much as the machines themselves. They are made with tire treads designed to rip and tear the bare ground and grass up. They have positraction rear ends.

I have seen a machine pivot on my front lawn and, while the outside wheel is turning free, the pivot wheel is ripping the grass out by the roots.

I think what needs to be done is make all the ATV dealers into real estate salesmen, then they can sell a package deal — one ATV and one God’s Little Acre — that they can pay taxes on after they get done ripping the hell out of it!

Unlike snow machines that run on snow and frozen ground, and lots of times have the same people operating them, ATVs are run on bare ground, soft ground, muddy ground and tender grass and plants.

Philip Lejonhud, Norway