Happy Fourth of July – Celebrate the Few Freedoms You Have Left!

According to the American Pyrotechnics Association’s Web site, Ohio has a strange law concerning private use of fireworks: "[C]onsumer fireworks may be sold to Ohio residents upon execution of a form agreeing to take the items out to [sic] the state within 48 hours…"

So you can buy fireworks in Ohio, but you can’t use them in Ohio. The only types of fireworks that are permitted for use in Ohio are wire or wood stick sparklers and other novelty items.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), an agency that never met a regulation it didn’t like, reported that 9,600 people were treated for fireworks-related injuries in 2004. And in a report prepared by the CPSC which analyzed injury data collected over a seven year period, the agency noted: "[A] majority of the injuries from the 'consumer' or family-type fireworks involved misuse rather than malfunction."

In other words, millions of people use fireworks every year, yet only a few people get injured. And according to the CPSC study, most of the injuries came from misuse – another way of saying that people acted carelessly.

So why can’t ordinary individuals have fireworks? I think you know the answer: the nanny state wants to protect us from ourselves.

One way to determine if a law is necessary and moral is to ask: Does this law curtail everybody’s freedom because a few people will hurt themselves?

From that viewpoint, Ohio’s fireworks law is clearly unnecessary and immoral. It deprives everyone of the freedom to use fireworks because a few people might not be careful and might hurt themselves or others.

Ironic, isn’t it, that on the day we celebrate our freedom, we aren't free to use fireworks without breaking the law.