As Glenn Reynolds would say, "the country is in the very best hands."

Idiots.

The purpose of the sign is that it is an easy way for regulators to find out if a vending machine owner is paying attention to all the odd vending machine regulations, like the special tax. And if the sign is posted on the machine, the owner will have a hard time claiming he didn't know about the other regs. They're hoping citizens will notice the sign and the award offer on compliant machines and report non-compliant machines. So Stossel is wrong when he states that "the only point of the sign is: it's illegal to not have it."

Reminds me of when I was in California and the hotels had signs on them near the entrances and exits that the building "may contain materials known to the State of California to cause cancer". I guess the labeling laws in California were sufficiently wide enough that the hotel thought it might as well cover itself.

So how long till the feds enact a regulation that when you concealed carry you have to post a similar notice prominently on your shirt with the ATF's number? After all, if you know to post a notice prominently on your shirt, you must know all the other thousands of gun laws you are supposed to be obeying. Does this law still seem reasonable? I think it is an abomination.

Evidently, the sign originally had a name and tax id number of the owner of the vending machine. The vending machine lobby tried to get the requirement for the sign removed legislatively and failed. But they succeeded in getting legislation that removed the requirement that the sign have any identifying information.

So the sign requirement is just as stupid as it appears.