Bossier Parish Now Bans “Usage” Of Fireworks; Not Sale

I guess the easiest way to put it is…In Bossier Parish, you can buy ‘em, but you can’t pop ‘em.  If I’m understanding the policy correctly, the Bossier Parish Police Jury met earlier today and said Bossier Parish “isn’t banning the sale of fireworks; just the usage”.  So, you and the kids can load up, hit the fireworks stand, buy all you can afford….and then just look at ‘em? Or drive into Caddo Parish (outside the Shreveport City Limits) or maybe to Grandma’s house in Webster Parish and pop ‘em there? 

I pray Santa Claus doesn’t catch on to this idea.  “Okay kids, I brought your presents all the way from the North Pole, but you can’t open them.”  This really reeks of politics of old….”Yes I smoked marijuana but I didn’t inhale”….Sound familiar? 

I have some really good friends in the fireworks business and I understand the predicament that a ban on the “sale” of fireworks would do to them financially, but for the life of me I can’t see the up side on this one.  Seems to me that a “ban” would be a “ban” and that “ban” would be for the entire state.  After I spoke with one of these vendors last night, I gathered their biggest issue was the fact that in Shreveport, where fireworks can’t be sold or popped, there would still be a “city” fireworks celebration.  I was told “how do they plan to have a fireman or bomb squad guy everywhere those fireworks land?”

I guess that only in North Louisiana is there a huge wall that magically protects the parish lines from bottle rockets that, in any other area of the world, could have wandered off track.  “Officer, I swear I lit that rocket here in Caddo Parish; I had no idea it would go all the way over the river.”  Imagine the overflow of cases in the Bossier Courthouse from children maliciously waving sparklers in their front lawns which happen to be on the parish lines. 

It’s dry!  Dangerously dry!  And I believe that Bossier Parish is trying to do what it can to protect its citizens from the potential hazards, and it would have been nice for this to have been a multi-parish decision, but the moment that Caddo and Webster decided it was “okay” it essentially neutralized Bossier’s decision.  This is a sticky deal at best…and could get even stickier as Caddo may release details of a revised policy this Thursday, June 30^th.  Maybe they’ll just elect to move July 4^th to the next day it rains…I guess anything is possible.