PORTLAND, Maine (AP) ? The mother of a man who tried to launch a firework off the top of his head for July Fourth and was killed instantly said Monday
she's advocating for stricter controls about who can use the explosives.
stupid bitch
Devon Staples, 22, and his friends had been drinking and setting off fireworks Saturday night in a backyard in Staples' eastern Maine hometown, Calais, when the accident happened with a reloadable fireworks mortar tube, police have said.
Staples' mother, Kathleen Staples, said she is going to reach out to lawmakers about the possibility of tighter controls over fireworks. The state should consider requiring safety training courses before allowing someone to use them, she said. She compared fireworks with other regulated items such as cars and guns.
"At least it'd be a little bit more than, 'Here you go,'" Staples said. "That's an explosive. They didn't just hand me a license and put me in the car." Devon Staples also had lived in the Orlando, Florida, area, where he worked as a performer portraying Disney characters such as Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast" and Goofy, his mother said.
She said he believed the firework was "a dud" that was unlikely to hurt him. State Fire Marshal Joe Thomas said that is unlikely because the mortar had been fired once previously and he "can't imagine someone would anticipate that it was a dud."
Mom of man killed setting off fireworks on head: rules lax