Legalize fireworks in Massachusetts
Once again, I write to suggest the time has come for Massachusetts to join the rest of the country and legalize the use of consumer fireworks for its citizens. This is the second year New York is permitting the sale and use of consumer fireworks, and the results have been very successful.
There has been a dramatic increase in the use of fireworks in America since 1994, when we imported and used 117 million pounds of fireworks. In 2015, that figure rose to 285.3 million pounds, an unbelievable increase from 1994 to 2015 of more than 143 percent, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Consider during the same period, the rate of fireworks-related injuries, based on 100,000 pounds of fireworks used, has gone from 10.7 to 4.2, a reduction exceeding 60 percent, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Imagine, an increase in use of more than 143 percent and a reduction in injuries of more than 60 percent. This is truly a phenomenal safety record of which the fireworks industry and the 47 states that permit the use of some level of consumer fireworks can be very proud.
The reduction in the number of fireworks-related injuries is even more impressive, when you consider the CPSC injury statistics include injuries related to professional display fireworks, illegal explosives, homemade fireworks and altered fireworks – none of which are consumer fireworks.
The following states have liberalized their consumer fireworks laws in recent years: Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Utah and West Virginia.
One of Massachusetts' favorite sons, second U.S. President John Adams, in a now famous July 3, 1776, letter to his wife, Abigail, expressed that Independence Day, “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations (fireworks) from one end of this continent to the other, from this day forward forevermore.”
The time has come for Massachusetts to join 47 other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in legalizing the sale and use of some level of consumer fireworks.
William A. Weimer vice president, Phantom Fireworks
WBJ Web Partners
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