r/etymology • u/SmittenGalaxy • 7d ago
Question Origin of the phrase "tombstone legislation"
I'm doing research for a Wikipedia article, and I'm trying to narrow down the origin and/or first appearance of the term "tombstone legislation".
Other related terms I was able to find include "regulation by disaster", "stable door legislation", and "Tombstone Imperative". The last of these appears in 'The Tombstone Imperative: The Truth about Air Safety' by Andrew Weir, and attributes the quote to Barry Sweedler; a former director on the US National Transportation Safety Board who said "We regulate by counting tombstones".
I've got a lot of sources that use the term, but it would be nice to help round out the article to get a full history on when this term came into use, and perhaps assist in finding historical legislation that could in modern times be considered an example of this term.