This is getting out of hand. Sparklers, along with all other fireworks, are currently illegal in the state of New York. The Bloomberg administration would like to keep it that way, and is pushing Governor Cuomo to veto a bill that would legalize the novelty devices for a few months a year–even though the bill would keep them illegal in NYC. His reasoning: terrorism.
Citing the case of Faisal Shahzad, who staged the failed Times Square bombing attempt of 2010 with the help of a few M-88s, Bloomberg administration official Joseph Garba said “While this bill excludes New York City, legalizing these devices everywhere else in the state would, as a practical matter, have the same effect in the five boroughs.”
A few problems with that logic: Shazad got his fireworks in Pennsylvania, something he’d still be able to do under the proposed law, and M-88s contain gunpowder. Sparklers don’t. Anything you’d be able to do with sparklers, you’d probably be able to do with matches, also.
(Photo: Derek Key/Flickr)
