Olathe fire is why some home fireworks should be restricted now | Donovan vs. Walker
Editor's Note: Welcome to Double Take, a conversation in Star Opinion that tackles news with differing perspectives and respectful debate. Today, Opinion Editor Yvette Walker and Deputy Opinion Editor Derek Donovan discuss whether fireworks should be banned.
Derek Donovan: Shooting fireworks into the sky from your driveway is one of our favorite, time-honored traditions to celebrate Independence Day.
It should also be banned — at least for the most part.
An anti-American, nanny-state declaration against freedom? In 2026, not really. I believe in 30 years, we’ll wonder why we collectively lost our minds in the common-sense-doesn’t-apply-to-me social media era we’re struggling through today.
Thirteen people are out of a home in Olathe this week, after fireworks engulfed the deck of a duplex, according to the fire department. I’m grateful no injuries were reported — but the Fourth of July is still a few days away, and I’m sure this won’t be the only mishap in our city.
It’s simply a fact that the arsenal shoppers encounter when they visit one of the countless tents that pop up in parking lots this time of year is vastly more powerful — and lethal — than the fireworks of years past. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as “500 gram cakes,” which shoot off hundreds of different explosions in rapid fire.
Yvette Walker: Yes, that seems excessive. But a ban? Perhaps we should be reaching for level-headedness or judgment here.
Derek: I think fireworks technology has gotten ahead of regular people’s ability to manage it. I’m generally in favor of the Second Amendment. However, the Founding Fathers didn’t know what an Uzi was, and you’ll never convince me they would have thought average Americans should be able to have any kind of armament they want. “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,” wrote archconservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. But it’s “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” Same with fireworks.
Yvette: You’re right, it is a time-honored tradition. Even a rite of passage. And if you ban all home fireworks, you ban the spinners, fountains and the relatively harmless sparklers. Whose mom or dad couldn’t wait to light up a sparkler in front of their kid and watch those eyes light up in wonder?
And sparklers are used for more than July 4. I used sparklers at my outdoor wedding, with guests on either side holding aloft the handheld fireworks as we walked down the aisle. It made for a great photo.
Can we practice home fireworks safely? I think we can. It takes some common sense, of course, and perhaps part of that wisdom might mean banning some fireworks. You mentioned the “cakes.” I’d add to that artillery or canister shells. But I’m neutral on Roman candles and bottle rockets. I’m not sure I’d go that far, as long as adults handle them — never children.
By the way, as much as I think we should have the right to celebrate safely using fireworks at home, I have to mention the effect some have on dogs and some other pets. The sounds can really terrify dogs because of their acute hearing.
Derek: I have immense sympathy for the poor animals that suffer during the annual firestorm — but for the people, too. One of my father’s childhood friends wears a hearing aid to this day because of a fireworks accident, and that was from a little bomb produced many decades ago. The power and loudness of today’s munitions dwarf what was for sale over the counter in the 1950s and ‘60s.
I’m not saying we have to outlaw every home firework. But even professionals can fall victim to the danger. Remember the horrific Mississippi fireworks barge accident in St. Louis on July 3, 1997? Three people died and at least 50 were injured. Could a 20-minute spectacle ever be worth even a single human life?
Yvette: Yes, that was a tragedy due to a misfire of one of the fireworks. No doubt, fireworks can be dangerous for the people handling them. But most people think of these displays more as entertainment for the viewers, as a way to celebrate our nation’s beginnings. John Adams said he wanted to see it celebrated with “with pomp, parade … bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”
Did you know that Missouri is a part of early fireworks history? The American Pyrotechnics Association was founded in 1948 by a group of seven fireworks manufacturing companies including Zenith Fireworks in Clinton, Missouri. The APA states that “early U.S. settlers brought their love of fireworks with them to the New World and fireworks were part of the very first Independence Day.” The APA also offers tips to celebrate safely at home.
Derek: I love that for them — but the American Pyrotechnics Association’s goal is to sell customers more pyrotechnics, not to discourage them from spending vast amounts of money on a home show that doesn’t begin to rival the spectacle of even mid-level public displays.
As the old saying goes, safety rules are written in blood. A lot of what anyone can buy at a roadside stand simply aren’t the harmless smoke bombs Lumpy hid inside his friends’ cars in a 1963 episode of “Leave It to Beaver.” They can blind, disfigure and even kill people. At least 15 Americans died in fireworks accidents last year, and 13,000 were injured — most of them 15 to 24, most of them burnt on their hands or heads. Impulse control isn’t a young man’s strong point (I shudder to remember some of the stupid things my high school friends and I did), and they don’t need the sanction of the government telling them these highly dangerous explosives are nothing more than toys.
If even deep-red Utah can effectively ban fireworks during this season of extreme wildfire risk, surely the rest of us can take a rational look at what explosives we’re selling — and ask whether it’s time to ratchet them back, at least a little.
