Some of the most bold and aggressive ideas to crack down on illegal fireworks appear dead this legislative session.
Bills increasing fines, limiting consumer fireworks, providing technology to search shipping containers and allowing county police departments to track explosions all failed to cross over to their opposite chambers for further consideration.
Retired Army Col. Debra Lewis, 65, had a bad experience with fireworks at a Fourth of July event in the early 1970s at what was then called Wolf Trap Farm in Virginia. The fireworks went off course and into the crowd.
So it is frustrating when the Legislature does not pass bills to mitigate illegal fireworks, she said.
Hawaii does have “stringent laws” regulating illegal fireworks, “but they’re not being enforced,” Lewis said.
“If nothing happens in the Legislature to help tighten (laws), or give incentives or maybe funding, or something that’s going to make a difference, then like most things it’s up to the individual citizens to say, ‘Enough’ and take action, whatever they can,” she said.
Lewis called illegal fireworks, including enforcement, “a multiprong issue, not just a single prong.”
Fireworks bills that appear dead include:
>> House Bill 1322, which would require each county to establish a police fireworks enforcement unit.
>> Senate Bill 251, which would require county police departments to purchase and deploy explosion detection technology to assist in the location of and response to explosions caused by illegal firearms and fireworks.
>> HB 325, which would impose a penalty up to $5,000 on homeowners, renters and property managers who intentionally, knowingly or recklessly allow others to unlawfully use aerial devices from their properties after 9 p.m. and before 9 a.m.
>> SB 37, which would establish a shipping container inspection program.
>> HB 686, which would authorize the state Department of Public Safety to inspect shipping containers for illegal fireworks and explosives. The bill would also establish a shipping container inspection program using X-ray scanning portals; authorize the state Department of Transportation to impose shipping container import fees; and increase fines and punishments for fireworks violations.
>> HB 216, which would establish a shipping container inspection program and special fund. The bill also would increase the maximum fine for each violation.
>> The latest version of HB 809, which would establish and appropriate money for the shipping container inspection program and set it to begin no later than Dec. 1.
>> SB 707, which would require water carriers to keep records of people who retrieve fireworks from a terminal facility. The bill would also require shipping companies to provide an annual compilation of people who retrieve fireworks from a terminal facility to the appropriate county police department.
>> SB 1481, which would authorize county fire departments to inspect warehouses, piers, cargo, baggage and the personal effects of arriving ship passengers for illegal fireworks. It also would require fireworks importers to file written statements with county fire departments.
>> SB 1611, which would require the state Department of Transportation to install fireworks-scanning equipment at every state airport and commercial harbor.
>> SB 1339, which would have the state Department of Law Enforcement plan, coordinate and engage in law enforcement operations to intercept illegal fireworks; and ensure the safety and security of airports, harbors and other facilities and institutions against the discharge of illegal fireworks and explosives.
>> HB 783 and HB 889, which would both establish an illegal fireworks task force within the state Department of the Attorney General to develop a strategic plan to stop the importation of illegal fireworks and explosives into the state and ensure the safety and security of airports, harbors and other state facilities.
>> SB 192 and its companion, HB 145, which would impose a statewide limit on consumer fireworks, except by permit for cultural events.
>> The latest version of SB 708, which would set fines for possession and use of fireworks. The bill would establish the Fireworks Possession Special Fund and allocate proceeds of the fund to county police departments and for climate change mitigation.
>> SB 846 and its companion, HB 495, which would increase fines against fireworks violations.
Fireworks bills that are alive include:
>> The latest version of SB 821, which establishes the Illegal Fireworks Task Force within the state Department of Law Enforcement to stop the importation of illegal fireworks and explosives into the state.
>> The latest version of SB 498, which establishes the Shipping Container Inspection Program and shipping container inspection program special fund.
Retired Army Sgt. Patrick S. Malone, 40, is usually comfortable when he expects fireworks to go off on the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve.
But he is sometimes caught off guard when fireworks explode unexpectedly, taking him back to his days in combat.
Still, Malone views fireworks as “something that we have to live with.”
Malone — whose service spanned 10 years, including a deployment to Diyala province in Iraq from 2010 to 2011 — said veterans signed up to defend America’s freedoms, which include the freedom to set off fireworks.
“How are we gonna say we fought for your freedoms and then you’re not free to bust off some fireworks?” Malone said. “Even if it does bother us — it does. But those are the sacrifices we make.”
