{"id":627,"date":"2014-03-06T10:48:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T02:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/?p=627"},"modified":"2014-03-06T10:48:37","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T02:48:37","slug":"fireworks-ban-is-moot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/06\/fireworks-ban-is-moot\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireworks ban is moot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Iowa is one of four states that bans sales of any fireworks other than sparklers and a few novelty items. Four states ban everything. And 42 states and the District of Columbia have laws that allow some form of consumer fireworks sales and firing them off.
\nProposed legislation in the Iowa Senate would change that. And we haven\u2019t seen evidence that some limited change would significantly increase fires or fireworks injuries in our state.
\nEven though it\u2019s not legal for Iowans to shoot off fireworks such as roman candles and skyrockets, lots of us do anyway after buying them out of state. Unless neighbors file complaints or a safety hazard is reported, authorities generally are reluctant to bring charges.
\nThe bill\u2019s supporters are interested mostly in keeping the economic benefits and sales tax revenue within our borders. And that makes some sense, although the amount would be modest.
\nThe proposal limits sales to those 18 and older. Local governments, such as cities and counties, would retain the ability to ban sales within their jurisdictions if they are seen as a public safety threat. The state fire marshal also could issue restrictions. Drought conditions that elevate the risk of grass fires, for example, come to mind.
\nEven with the \u201csafer,\u201d more regulated fireworks of today, injuries still happen \u2014 the majority are burns to hands, fingers and head, mostly because of users not being careful. Over the past five years, the nation\u2019s emergency rooms treated about 6,000 to 9,000 such injuries per year. Deaths are rare. And on Independence Day, not surprisingly, about 40 percent of the nation\u2019s reported fires are attributed to fireworks misuse, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
\nThe dangers of misusing fireworks should not be diminished. Yet Iowans already are shooting them off. If they could buy them closer to home, would the injury and fire counts increase substantially? Doubtful.
\nWithout some kind of national restriction on sales of consumer fireworks, a continued ban in Iowa seems hard to support. And do Iowans really need such \u201cprotection\u201d from the state, especially from their own careless mistakes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s because Iowa is one of four states that bans sales of any fireworks other than sparklers and a few novelty items. Four states ban everything. And 42 states and the District of Columbia have laws that allow some form … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,48,64,53,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fireworks","category-fireworks-news","category-fireworks-rules","category-fireworks-show-photo","category-21"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions\/629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dpfireworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}