Fireworks (Idaho Falls, Teton: home, law, legally)

[mistyriver]

How do you all feel about them this year?
I saw people, of course, firing off illegal aerials last night.
Stupid.
Seems like the counties/cities should legally pass a law that gives them the right to ban fireworks with a hefty fine for violators in bad drought years.

[volosong]

Our city council discussed regulating the use of fireworks the other year. They took no action deeming anything legislated being unenforceable. The libertarian ethos is strong in this corner of Idaho.

Personally, I would like to see the use regulated to specific hours. Shooting those things off at 10, 11, and midnight is stupid and just keeps people from sleeping, as well as keeping dogs in a constant state of terror. Won't ever happen because, again, it would be unenforceable.

[banjomike]

I'm certain someone will start a range fire with fireworks down here. It won't be on the 4th, most likely, but will be within a couple of days later.

The fireworks law has been a mixed blessing. On one hand, we no longer have to put up with a month of nightly explosions, but on the other hand the 5th to the 8th of July are full of explosions, especially out in the countryside, as people use up all the fireworks they bought and never lit on the 4th.

They get 2 days in our cities to use them up, with nothing lit after midnight. So the folks in town go out to the country and light them where there aren't any city cops on patrol.

4 years ago, the largest range fire in Idaho history was ignited when a young adult and his girlfriend shot off the last of his bottle rockets in a canyon south of Idaho Falls on a windy evening. In 24 hours, over 500,000 acres burned, and was only stopped from becoming a major forest fire by all the farmers who plowed up wide fire lines on their properties, giving the fire no fuel.

It left unchecked, the fire could have spread into the Targhee National Forest, and from Targhee into the Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. God only knows where the fire would have gone after that, but it could have engulfed most of southwest Montana, all of southern Idaho, almost all of Wyoming, and into northern Utah. Federal forests are interconnected in all these areas, and several, like Targhee, cross state boundaries.

2017 was windier, but not as hot.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by volosong

Our city council discussed regulating the use of fireworks the other year. They took no action deeming anything legislated being unenforceable. The libertarian ethos is strong in this corner of Idaho.

Personally, I would like to see the use regulated to specific hours. Shooting those things off at 10, 11, and midnight is stupid and just keeps people from sleeping, as well as keeping dogs in a constant state of terror. Won't ever happen because, again, it would be unenforceable.

I have a lot of libertarian views but I believe that my rights end where someone else’s begin.
We all suffer when forest fires burn.
I’m hoping we can not burn down half the state with our “Patriotism”.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by volosong

Our city council discussed regulating the use of fireworks the other year. They took no action deeming anything legislated being unenforceable. The libertarian ethos is strong in this corner of Idaho.

Personally, I would like to see the use regulated to specific hours. Shooting those things off at 10, 11, and midnight is stupid and just keeps people from sleeping, as well as keeping dogs in a constant state of terror. Won't ever happen because, again, it would be unenforceable.

Yup.
Idaho Falls never regulated fireworks here until July became one long fireworks explosion from dusk to dawn for a full month or more. For years and years.

The regulation came in 2 stages; at first no fireworks after midnight were permitted. Then, a few years later, no more fireworks could be shot off after July 7or 8. (approx. I've forgotten the exact date)

This created some time to shoot off all the unused fireworks from the 4th without allowing them to be rationed into one or two big explosions nightly, as many folks had done before.

The complaints stopped afterwards and Idaho Falls suffered far fewer panicked runaway dogs after the laws were implemented.
The dogs were the biggest complaints. People really tend to worry about their panicked pets a lot!

I think your city council could run a referendum on this to see what the public support would be.

That didn't happen here; the city council just held some open discussion meetings, then passed the laws. At the time, a lot of opposition was anticipated, but it turned out almost everyone wanted a peaceful night's sleep more than the freedom to make loud explosions at all hours every summer night.

Idaho Falls is home to the largest fireworks display west of the Mississippi, so folks here do love their fireworks. The law's compromises worked out well.

[mistyriver]

I wonder how well it would be enforced if they let the police departments keep the fines from illegal fireworks…

[banjomike]

Today, July 3, is Idaho's 131st birthday.
We were made a state on July 3, 1890, along with Montana, Wyoming, and several others.

Congress wanted to recess on the 4th, so they voted a bunch of western states in, one after the other, on that day.

[mistyriver]

As far as fireworks laws being unenforceable, aren’t all laws pretty much “unenforceable”?
People speed all the time but if a cop sees them, they get pulled over. Lots of people don’t get pulled over. But the knowledge that they could be, helps moderate behavior.
Frankly, I think that when people like the KC sheriff say this, it’s because they don’t want to enforce it.

[oldafretired]

https://cdapress.com/news/2021/jul/0...ban-fireworks/

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by oldafretired

https://cdapress.com/news/2021/jul/0...ban-fireworks/

He’s pandering to the DA contingent.
God help him if they cause a wildfire.
He will be run out of the county on a rail.