FIREWORKS
on recommendations to the General Assembly, that bill would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
“I am just as perplexed and puzzled as you are as to why this has not been passed,” he said.
So is Kirkersville resident Brittany Dusenbery, who was shopping recently at Phantom Fireworks in that Licking County community with her children, Mason, 5, and Alyssa, 1.
It’s “silly,” Dusenbery, 28, said of current law.
The Senate Oversight and Reform Committee heard from proponents and opponents during hearings in November, February and May.
Committee Chairman Bill Coley, a Butler County Republican, said committee members were pretty positive about passage, but he couldn’t say when the group would vote on the measure. While the legislature has scheduled some late-summer sessions, lawmakers likely will not be back until after the November elections.
Robin Shannon testified against the bill in committee. Her 3-year-old son died years ago after being struck in the side of his head by a firework at a family reunion in Kentucky.
“We stood by helpless to relieve his pain,” she said in her testimony.
Shannon asked legislators to think “long and hard” about the ramifications of the bill.
Fireworks opponents also think the current laws should change.
Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said the answer is not eliminating fireworks laws but making them stricter and easier to enforce.
“The current law is silly,” Smith said. “We know people aren’t following it.”
Smith said many fireworks-related injuries are to bystanders, many of them children who are being supervised by their parents, just like Shannon’s son.
“When it comes to legislation, we need to put child safety and public safety first,” Smith said. Above: Brittany Dusenbery and her children, Mason, 5, and Alyssa, 1, of Kirkersville, shop for fireworks at Phantom Fireworks in Millersport. Under current law, many of the fireworks in the store can only be used out of state.
Left: Phantom Fireworks manager Travis Snavely fills a customer’s order in the Millersport store.