John Adams is credited with dreaming up the idea that my cats should cower under my bed for most of the months of June and July.
John was only 40 years old at the time and was feeling really good about having signed the Declaration of Independence. So, he wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail, that said the first anniversary of the signing (July 4, 1777) “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade … bonfires and illuminations (fireworks) … from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”
Abigail — who had trouble keeping quiet about anything and evidently had no feelings for my cats one way or the other — blabbed the idea here and there. Sure enough, when the first “Fourth of July” rolled around, the skies of Boston and Philadelphia were lit up with orange-colored aerial explosions. (That’s all they had in those days. No one would figure out how to add other colors for about another 60 years.)
Whatever the colors or the occasion — Independence Day, New Year’s Day, Hope Heritage Days or a family barbecue — Americans love fireworks. We love the big, commercial displays and we love launching bottle rockets in our backyards.
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According to the Indiana State Department of Health, 238 Hoosiers loved backyard fireworks so much last year that they ended up in a hospital emergency room. Most of the injuries were burns — 10 percent of which were severe. One in three of the injured were teens and children. Males were injured twice as frequently as females.
Almost every part of the human anatomy was included, but nearly half were finger, hand and arm injuries. Among children, 70 of the 85 injured were in the presence of an adult when hurt. Among injured adults, almost a third had been drinking alcohol at the time of the injury. (No statistics were available on how many of the “supervising adults” present when their children were injured had been drinking.)
Injuries such as these are the main reason Indiana government has had such a long and convoluted history with fireworks regulation. For most of the latter half of the 20th century, possession of any fireworks — other than sparklers and a few other small, non-exploding novelties — was illegal.
Still, having grown up during those days, I can attest that the law was a joke. Hoosiers simply made “Smokey and the Bandit”-type runs to Kentucky and Tennessee and returned with whatever fireworks they wanted — to set off on their own or sell to others. Violations of the law were so rampant that the police pretty much had to look the other way or arrest about every teenager or young adult in the state.
Then in the 1990s, the Indiana General Assembly and the governor came up with an even bigger joke, a law that said fireworks could be sold to any Hoosier over 18, as long as the purchaser signed a paper at the time of purchase agreeing only to use them in another state or some other (undefined) “designated area.” (Rumor was that two Boy Scouts, three Roman Catholic nuns and an itinerate folk singer passing through on his way to California actually followed through on the pledge.)
Finally, in 2006, a new law went into effect legalizing all “consumer fireworks” — basically anything the fireworks companies want to sell, as long as they have been approved by the federal Consumer Product Safety Division, and the seller gets a permit from the Indiana state fire marshall. You may legally set them off any day you wish, on your own property between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m., and until midnight on Independence Day and three other holidays.
(“Display Fireworks” of the mortar variety used at community celebrations are regulated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which requires a federal permit. This is a bit more extensive than Indiana’s old “fireworks stand pledge.”)
So old John Adams has left us with quite a responsibility, along with the joy of the celebration.
When it comes to consumer fireworks, government has pretty much turned libertarian. Some effort is made to help assure the fireworks you legally buy are safe when you follow the warnings on the labels, but safety is really — literally — in your hands.
So have a great celebration, but be safe and watch the children.
And, even though the law says you can fire off your fireworks until 11 p.m. any night of the year, give my cats a break. They, and I, like to go to bed about 9:30.
Bud Herron is a retired editor and newspaper publisher who lives in Columbus. He served as publisher of The Republic from 1998 to 2007. His weekly column appears on the Opinion page each Sunday. Contact him at editorial@therepublic.com
