This is an annual ritual. Every year, there are complaints about how confusing and ineffective the fireworks law is in Indiana. Every year, nothing is done about it. I personally don’t have a strong feeling about which fireworks should be legal. I launched bottle rockets from the seat of a moving 10-speed and lived to tell the tale, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend such behavior. But the law should be clear. And our law, is crap.
The Indianapolis Star has commented on this before, and so have I. The Indianapolis Star has an article today entitled Fireworks law called confusing. According to the article:
Igniting fireworks is banned in Indiana with the exception of sparklers, noisemakers and a few other varieties. But illegal fireworks, such as bottle rockets and firecrackers, can be sold to people who promise to take them out of the state. Buyers also can agree to set them off in one of the state’s 25 designated areas run by firefighters.
[State Fire Marshal] Johnson said few people keep those promises. And police can’t stop “thousands of simultaneous crimes occurring in every corner of the community, every corner of the state,” he said.
Under the provisions of the law, I’m not even sure that local police have jurisdiction to enforce the law. I believe it was written to give the state fire marshal — and only the fire marshal — authority to enforce that particular law.
The law is here. It reads like a pretzel. That’s not an accident. As I said before,
In Indiana, where our legislation tends to be clearly written –even if you disagree with the policies,– a law doesn’t get this obfuscatory by accident. There was an intent to have this law be full of sound and fury, but signify nothing.
So, the Indy Star is being overly kind when it calls the law “flawed.” The structure of our fireworks law is an abomination.
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