After replacing a ridiculous law (you can buy fireworks if you promise not to use them here) with a wildly unpopular one (make big noise all the time!), the General Assembly finally gets it right:
State lawmakers moved closer than ever Monday to giving local communities sweeping authority to regulate the use of fireworks.
The Indiana House voted 69-27 to allow cities and towns to restrict when and where fireworks can be used, provided municipalities still allow backyard barrages on six days around July 4 and on New Year's Eve. The state Senate voted 37-9 for a similar measure last month, so it could be only a matter time before it becomes law.
For more than 30 years, I've watched the state parsimoniously dole out home rule a little piece at a time. Any measure granting local control, whatever the issue, has to be counted as a huge victory. One person's "untenable patchwork of laws" is another's "control of our own destiny."
