Legalize fireworks

Up and down the Front Range on July 4, and particularly in Colorado Springs, laws against fireworks were flagrantly broken. Children and adults ignored the laws, and so did most police officers, who haven't the time to come running each time something goes "bang," or each time someone dials 911 to report a noise.

In Colorado Springs, police logged an estimated 350 complaints about fireworks over the July 4 weekend, and it appears they issued no citations. Local voters have indicated a desire for limited government during financial hard times, and that's what they're getting.

Boulder police report taking more fireworks complaints than in past years, and they also made enforcement a low priority.
If illegal fireworks use was higher than usual this year, it probably has to do with the fact danger levels were low. Most communities along the Front Range have been mercifully deluged with rain, so residents are naturally less concerned with starting fires. The wet conditions also explain why law enforcement agencies were able to indulge a laissez-faire attitude regarding fireworks. Boulder's Daily Camera reports police at the University of Colorado-Boulder wrote no citations to respect the "spirit of the holiday."

It is time for Colorado Springs, and other communities throughout Colorado, to reconsider heavy-handed fireworks prohibitions that are too difficult and expensive to enforce adequately.

Most summers in Colorado are not this wet, and the mountain forests are dry fuel waiting for a bottle rocket or sparkler to set them ablaze. That's why Colorado Springs has a fireworks law that prohibits anything that must be lit. It's understandable. Dry forests and fireworks are a bad combination.

But the prohibition doesn't work very well, and even during dry spells police don't go speeding to the scene of violations.
Laws that can't be adequately enforced tend to force activities underground, where they only become more dangerous.

A more realistic and possibly more effective law would forbid fireworks use that causes a fire. It would establish severe penalties for those who use fireworks in such a manner as to start fires. That would be a law authorities could enforce. It would probably result in fewer fires and injuries, because it would encourage the responsible use of fireworks rather than the secretive, forbidden use of them.

Under current laws, fireworks users tend to light the fuse and run, committing their crimes without parental knowledge and with a constant effort to remain undetected. Under a "don't start fires" law, attached to unimaginable consequences, users would be more likely to manage their fireworks and to use them properly, preparing to douse fires with buckets of water or fire extinguishers. Children would be more likely to use fireworks with parental supervision, or at least parental knowledge. One thing is certain: Fireworks prohibitions are a joke. It is time for more realistic, more effective laws.