Where there’s smoke, there are people who want to stamp it out. Where’s there’s freedom, there are people who try to stamp that out as well. The people who want to stamp out both are the very ones charged with protecting us — our politicians.

The General Assembly is trying to pass a statewide ban on public smoking. According to The Associated Press, bill sponsor state Sen. Rob Garagiola, D-Montgomery, predicts it will pass. It’s not enough that 16 states and five Maryland counties already ban smoking in public. Maryland has to protect the rest of us from ourselves.

Some say true freedom means disliking something someone does and defending like hell his or her right to do it. If that is the case, then I will now defend the right to smoke in bars and restaurants — even though I hate smoking almost as much as I hate that Indianapolis football team. (OK, not nearly that much.)

All smoking. I hate cigarettes, cigars, pipes and those illegal delicacies some light up at concerts. So I am sure this column is sending shock waves through my parents’ Arbutus home.

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Smoking has been under attack dating back 30 years to a Berkeley, Calif., movement to ban public smoking. We’ve had time for court cases, lawsuits, medical claims, new laws and lots and lots of taxes. Anyone who thinks smoking isn’t harmful has been living under a rock since those old “kick the habit” commercials.

Remarkably, millions still smoke. And as long as smokers enjoy the habit, there will be others trying to force them to quit — for their own good.

Why? Because they think they know better. The do-gooders of today are like the prohibitionists of old — intent on enforcing public attitudes no matter what others may want.

Where in this bullying quest to make us live healthier lives is the concept of free choice?

My family can tell you I can’t stand to be around even the residual odors left by smoke. But I love my family, so when I visit, I deal with it.

It’s the same thing going to a bar after a Ravens victory or Oriole defeat. You are making a choice. No one is making you inhale.

But lawmakers are intent on making that decision for us. What will they decide next? Will they eliminate the use of colognes, perfumes or peanuts because they harm those with extreme allergies? The list is almost endless. And our freedoms erode with each new dictate.

The true irony is that lawmakers would ban smoking in the very establishments where the ban on alcohol once failed.

Perhaps someone should force them to read a history book on the subject.

Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com.