Letters to the Editor, Opinion Now is the time to tighten fireworks laws
Well, another July Fourth has come and gone. Another mess is left in the streets and yards, and on rooftops and decks as testimony.
There is a state regulation that says fireworks must be set off on one’s own property and must not be directed at another person’s property. But with our current allowances in the City of Camas, how would that ever be enforceable?
This day is supposed to be in remembrance of our country’s hard fought battles, yet the real effects of its observation seems to be about pitting neighbor against neighbor, where possibly half the population is forced to endure with mouths closed, the noise, the mess, the obstruction of our own local streets that access our homes, while the other half are allowed free reign to act like adolescents, even though they should have long outgrown that stage.
Fireworks continue to be sold because it is profitable for someone.
Groups use it as a fundraiser, something that is dangerous and destructive to people and property and are outraged when it is threatened to be taken away. Let me ask, would we allow people to sell cigarettes, alcohol or other harmful products in order to make money for their cause? Of course not. Yet fireworks can be just as dangerous or destructive and a lot more contentious. It is an outdated way of fundraising, and those who fuss about it may need to become a little more creative in order to meet their needs.
Many of the stands are not even for charitable causes, but rather just business. Just imagine if the costs to the police and fire departments answering calls on Independence Day were billed to the sellers. It may not be so popular, all of a sudden. But no folks, that comes out of our tax dollars instead.
