Celebrating New Year's Day with Fireworks? Michigan Law Allows It
The start of the new year is among the 10 national holidays on which the state permits fireworks use.
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This New Year's Day may be one of the noisiest on record for Michigan, thanks to revisions in state fireworks laws approved in 2012.
The start of the new year is included on the list of national holidays for which the use of these colorful explosives is permitted by state law.
Under Michigan's controversial fireworks law, citizens can ignite, discharge and use consumer fireworks the day before, day of and day after a national holiday, including New Year's Day. The list of approved fireworks now includes "projectiles," such as bottle rockets and Roman Candles.
The 10 national holidays recognized by the law include:
- New Year's Day
- Martin Luther King Day
- President's Day or Washington's Birthday
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Labor Day
- Columbus Day
- Veterans Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
Many state residents and city leaders—including in Dearborn—have expressed frustration with the Fireworks Safety Act of 2011. Dearborn passed a fireworks ordinance that bans the personal use of fireworks on all days except those protected by the state law.
The state law was designed to increase revenue to the state and encourage citizens to buy consumer fireworks in Michigan rather than in neighboring states.
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laplateau
5:16 pm on Monday, December 31, 2012
I don't know about anyone else, but this year I will be no where near Dearborn at the 4th of July and the three days preceding it either. Last year was like a war zone. The smell and stench of the fireworks smoke was sickening. If I went outside my eyes burned because the residue was so thick. People were setting off these huge bombs and the fiery fallout was coming down in my yard and tress as well my roof. I wrote to the legislator who introduced this despicable law who wrote back and they were making amendments to the law to institute much more stringent measures regarding where these things could be used....but neither he or any other other people in Lansing have done a damn thing about it.