Schenectady County First to Change Firework Rules

I'm not a huge fan of buying fireworks. I don't have anything against them and I've been to parties where friends of mine have gotten them but I've personally never gotten them myself. As a Schenectady resident, guess I'm now really not going to be able to buy them.

There has been discussions over the safety of personal fireworks for years now until finally in 2015, a state ruling allowed New York residents the ability to purchase some fireworks that were acceptable certain days of the year. After concerns from Schenectady residents as well as a rise in injuries around Memorial Day and Fourth of July, that ruling has now been reversed.

Schenectady has become the first city in the Capital Region to opt out of the statewide fireworks rule, according to the Times Union. You can still purchase and use the small fireworks in local cities like those in Saratoga, Rensselaer, Washington & Montgomery counties.

I feel like if the whole Capital Region doesn't opt out then there's no point and it just kind of keeps people away from Schenectady and potential business. I see the safety risks but you can only do so much until it's up to us citizens. Like cars for example, they've proven to lead to many operator caused deaths but do we ban the use of cars? No, we educate safety and patrol it. I think the better idea would be to utilize a firework curfew than ban them altogether. You'd have to police them both the same way but this way, you keep people in Schenectady instead of scaring them away to bordering cities. What do you think?