It's the Fourth of July, which means Minnesotans are definitely not driving across the border to load up on illicit fireworks.
Right?
"Drove over to Wisconsin 2 NOT buy fireworks, NOT bring them back 2 MN, and NOT set them off in Farmington. Because Mark Dayton said so. #Not," state Rep. Pat Garofalo tweeted last week, still fuming over the governor's 2012 veto of a bill that would have legalized the sale of commercial fireworks in Minnesota.
"In the south metro of the Twin Cities, fireworks are as illegal as breathing right now," Garofalo joked. "Local law enforcement doesn't enforce these laws; people think they're dumb... The state can say what they think the law is, but in the south metro, the residents put on a better fireworks show than the city-sanctioned show."
So as some Minnesota residents prepare to fire off contraband to celebrate America's 237th birthday, some state lawmakers are gearing up to make those displays legal before next year's Fourth.
Just like last year, the bill would face a skeptical governor and resistance from state firefighters, who fear that access to more kinds of fireworks will simply lead to more accidents and injuries.
Fireworks injured 55 people – most of them children and teens – in Minnesota last June and July, the Department of Public Safety reports. Officials fear that those numbers would climb if residents had legal access to flying or exploding fireworks without a permit.
It is "government's foremost responsibility to protect the safety and the well-being of its citizens," Dayton wrote last April as he vetoed the fireworks legalization bill. "Government has the responsibility to do its utmost to protect vulnerable young Minnesotans, courageous firefighters and police officers, and innocent bystanders of all ages, who could become victims of someone else's carelessness."
