COLUMBUS, Ohio – Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill Friday afternoon that would have legalized consumer fireworks in Ohio, saying that the change in law was dramatic and would have been one of the least restrictive in the country.
In his veto message to members of the Ohio General Assembly, DeWine noted that the bill would have allowed the discharge of bottle rockets, firecrackers and aerial fireworks, 24 hours a day for numerous holidays.
“Since the Scottown, Ohio, (Lawrence County) fireworks store tragedy in 1996, there have been 2 major studies, one by Battelle Labs in 2000 and another study by Southwest Research Institute in 2008 (produced for the fireworks industry) to help find better ways to build and operate fireworks stores,” DeWine said in a statement. “SB 113 does not require compliance with the safety measures outlined in these studies but nevertheless doubles the square footage of stores that are selling these devices to the public.”
The Scottown incident happened at the Ohio River Fireworks store, which caught fire – killing nine people and injuring 11, according to a recent story in the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, W.V., remembering the Fourth of July tragedy.
Current Ohio law requires people to transport fireworks from Ohio within 48 hours of their purchase.
Senate Bill 113 would have allowed the pyrotechnics to be blown off during a handful of holidays – from the days around July 4, Dwali and New Year’s Eve, over Memorial and Labor day weekends, and on New Year’s Day, Juneteenth, Cinco De Mayo and Lunar New Year.
The bill would have imposed a 4% fee on the retail sale of consumer-grade fireworks, as well as allow retailers to increase their floor area for consumer-grade fireworks from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet. The fee would have funded firefighter training programs and the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s regulation and enforcement of the fireworks industry.
Had DeWine signed the bill, consumers wouldn’t have been able to buy fireworks for about a year, which would have provided the Fire Marshal’s office time to establish rules around consumer fireworks.
The veto comes after the fireworks-related death of Matiss Kivlenieks, a goaltender for the Columbus Blue Jackets, on Sunday in the Detroit area.
Kivlenieks was in a hot tub at the home of Manny Legace, the hockey team’s goaltending coach, when fireworks accidently went off in his direction, according to the Detroit Free Press. As Kivlenieks left the hot tub, he slipped and hit his head. The autopsy said he suffered percussive injuries to his internal organs as a result of a fireworks explosion.
Kivlenieks, 24, was from Latvia.
The veto will likely upset executives at Youngstown-based Phantom Fireworks, who have donated to President Donald Trump in the past and even got a shot-out on Twitter from the former president for helping pay for a 2019 July Fourth celebration in Washington. Phantom Fireworks lobbied on SB 113. It could also cause more rancor against DeWine among Trump voters in Ohio.
DeWine faces candidates in next year’s gubernatorial primary who are farther to the right than he is, and claim to be more aligned with the former president.
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