Lighting Fireworks in Ohio Would Be Legal Under Proposed Law

Many Ohioans are blissfully unaware that it’s illegal for them to light firecrackers or bottle rockets in their backyard (or anywhere in the state)

So if and when legislation being considered at the Ohio House regarding the lighting of fireworks is passed, the same Ohioans will continue doing what they’ve already been doing, but just legally.

Introduced by Sen. David Burke, R-Marysville, Senate Bll 386 would withdraw the requirement that consumer-grade fireworks – including basic firecrackers, Roman candles and bottle rockets – be taken out of the state within two days of purchase. Instead, Ohioans could legally “discharge, ignite or explore” those fireworks, according to the bill.

And of course, this is what many Ohioans already are doing.

In other provisions of the law, as reported in the Youngstown Vindicator, fireworks retailers would have to provide customers with safety glasses and a pamphlet issued by the State Fire Marshal’s office. S.B. 386 also would institute a 6 percent tax on fireworks purchases, with the revenue going to the State Fire Marshal’s office for training and enforcement efforts.

According to an article in Wednesday’s Columbus Dispatch, “With improved safety mechanisms on fireworks and fewer injuries, states throughout the U.S. have lessened or removed bans on fireworks.”

The Dispatch quoted Sen. Burke as arguing that because lighting fireworks is illegal in Ohio, people are more likely to injure themselves by purchasing bad products.

“When you have no standards and no enforcement of the standards, (bad) things end up for sale,” Burke said in the article. “We’re not going to do that in Ohio.”

Some 42 other states reportedly allow consumers to fire off some or all types of fireworks.

The proposed legislation is not without opposition, however. The nonprofit public-health organization, Prevent Blindness Ohio, opposes the legislation because the hazards of unsupervised fireworks.

The group’s CEO, Sherry Williams, said she helped form a new group, the Ohio Fireworks Safety Coalition, after learning of the fireworks legalization effort, to educate citizens and legislators on the hazards of fireworks being lighted by non-professionals.

“There’s no safe way to use explosives, and no explosives are inherently safe,” Williams said in the Dispatch article.

Under current law, Ohioans can buy fireworks but must agree to transport them outside state borders within two days of the purchase. The only fireworks that are legal to use in the state are relatively benign (and unimpressive) sparklers, party poppers, and smoke balls or snakes.

Legal fireworks dealers generally ask customers to sign a form where they say they’ll follow the rules of whatever state they want to light the fireworks in. If they plan to stay in Ohio, that would mean they’re promising not to light the fireworks they’re buying.

Yet, every Fourth of July, fireworks – some relatively elaborate – go off in nearly every neighborhood in Ohio, without any professional supervision.