Minnesota has stricter fireworks laws than its neighbors, but charges for violations are rare

Stashed away in trunks and backseats illicit products cross over Minnesota s borders from neighboring states Usage explodes each summer under the dark of night leaving a trail of smoke behind I m of discipline referring to fireworks the kinds that require a crane of the neck to admire up high in the Fourth of July sky Minnesota s laws forbid usage of aerial exploding fireworks setting it apart from neighboring states Wisconsin Iowa North Dakota and South Dakota Unless you re a municipality or fair association with a permit and a licensed operator that rules out Roman candles bottle rockets firecrackers and really anything going boom in the air Sparklers fountains and snakes are fair competition Based purely on my own observations as a lifelong Minnesotan multiple of those years spent lounging on a lakeshore or pontoon watching explosions in the sky this seemed like one of those laws a great number of people are willing to break Law enforcement agencies warn against this obviously due to the injury and fire risks associated with fireworks But surely they don t have the materials or will to widely investigate it right Mostly right according to district court material although charges and convictions do happen Minnesotans caught exploding using possessing selling or advertising fireworks can be charged under state statute Statewide the number of these charges filed in the years between and ranged from to Conviction totals ranged from to Large swaths of the state have had no recorded fireworks-related offenses since with only of Minnesota s counties having convictions under the statute The majority populous counties are near the top for convictions Notable exceptions exist however including Sherburne County coming in at No The central Minnesota county had convictions under the statute since driven almost entirely by in alone No other county had more than combined between and State statute details sentences for fireworks violations using weight as a bar Getting caught with pounds or more could prompt up to a fine compared to a maximum fine for possessing less than pounds Convictions based on these metrics are even rarer occurring times statewide since function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a material datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a input datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a statistics datawrapper-height t px r style height d Fireworks legalization is regularly proposed at the Minnesota Legislature getting as far as the governor s desk in after overcoming hurdles in the House and Senate Gov Mark Dayton vetoed it citing opposition by the state fire marshal inhabitants safety commissioner and dozens of organizations including police and fire chiefs associations State Sen Jason Rarick R-Pine City has been a supporter of legalization first as a state representative starting in and since becoming a senator in He majority of lately authored a bill to that effect in January Current laws aren t stopping Minnesotans from buying and using fireworks he announced but they do push money out of the state Every state around us is now selling them to Minnesota residents and we are missing out on that sales tax revenue he noted His district borders Wisconsin where residents can easily cross over and back to satisfy their firecracker demands Wisconsin s law is clever in a way requiring state residents to obtain permits through their county to purchase fireworks while allowing sales to out-of-state residents Rarick announced The rationale against fireworks legalization centers around safety and fire risks Statistics provided by the Minnesota Department of Constituents Safety established Minnesota had known injuries from fireworks in and in The running total since is including three overall deaths communicated in and For fire damage June and July dollar losses were as steep as about million in from incidents The concern with illegal fireworks is partly about how far they movement away from the operator stated Kat Barrett communications specialist with the Minnesota Department of Inhabitants Safety in an email Embers and sparks are hard to control far away Regardless of the fireworks used she advised people to keep an eye on pets and children around them Disposal should be done once fireworks are cool to the touch We suggest leaving them out overnight and soaking them in water to ensure all hot spots have been extinguished Barrett announced Rarick intends to continue proposing fireworks legalization in future sessions He doesn t think injuries would increase if fireworks were allowed as he persons greater part people who want to use them already do Coaching campaigns could coincide with legalization he mentioned Timing restrictions would be in place as well along with provisions for local control if a county or city still desired to restrict fireworks Rarick expects as would be usual in rural Minnesota fireworks lighting up the night sky won t be hard to find this Fourth of July The post Minnesota has stricter fireworks laws than its neighbors but charges for violations are rare appeared first on MinnPost