A proposed ban on fireworks in unincorporated St. Tammany Parish may be a dud as area residents and at least five parish council members called the proposal un-American and near impossible to enforce.

During a public meeting Wednesday night to hash out logistics, the majority of residents who spoke opposed the ban, while others rallied to stomp out fireworks altogether. No vote was cast or ordinance introduced, but the meeting was held to gauge public opinion on the issue, which largely centered on tighter restrictions but no outright ban.

Parish Councilman Henry Billiot launched the ban topic in May after eight-and-a-half years of constituents’ complaints every New Year’s Eve and July 4. He also cited safety concerns, saying a 7-year-old Mandeville boy once “blew his face off” with fireworks. “I need to hear from the people what they want,” he said Wednesday night. “But I think there is inherently something wrong with a 15-year-old going in with a pocket full of money and coming out with a bag full of fireworks.”

Under Louisiana law, anyone 15 years or older can buy fireworks in the days leading up to July 4 and New Years Eve. They must also be sober and “of good character,” a move that many council members laughed about. In all of St. Tammany’s municipalities, the use and sale fireworks is banned.

“At the very least we need to increase the legal age to 18 or 21,” Councilman Marty Dean said.

Dean, with council members Marty Gould, Rebecca Crawford Howell, Gene Bellisario, Richard Artigue, Kenneth Burkhalter and Al Hamauei said either they didn’t favor the prohibition or it’s too difficult to enforce.

“Just because we ban them doesn’t mean they won’t buy them in Mississippi and bring them back,” Artigue said.

Others likened the proposal to “Big Brother government” intruding in residents’ lives.

Gould, who called lighting fireworks a fundamental right, said, “A lot of injuries we hear about are because parents aren’t doing their jobs,” and he wondered if the ban would encroach on their rights to parent.

He opposes the ban but agrees tighter restrictions are needed, he said.

In addition to increasing the legal age, some community residents and council members argued for restricting the time frame to light fireworks to the days around July 4 and New Years Eve. Others even offered restricting lighting fireworks in densely populated areas.

One Slidell resident, Gail Ledet, suggested a community open space, policed by law enforcement, where people could fire fireworks.

“I pray for rain on New Year’s and the Fourth of July,” she said. “The general public just doesn’t have the expertise to put fireworks out there … It’s very dangerous.”

Ledet, who lives in Slidell, said kids constantly shoot bottle rockets at each other across canals. Bottle rockets are illegal in St. Tammany Parish but are often fired during the holidays, a move that seemed to back Artigue’s claim the fireworks will be trucked in from the outside.

Carl Hodge agreed.

As owner of Crazy Carl’s fireworks, a retailer for 32 years, largely in St. Tammany, he said he’d move his business from Slidell to just beyond the Mississippi line if a ban was adopted.

“I’ll be the first to put up a stand in Picayune,” he said. “It’s not going to stop people from buying them, and we would lose the tax revenue.”

In 1939 fireworks were banned in New Orleans, but “you don’t see it stopping people there” from lighting the booming bombs, he said.

“Everything we do has a little danger to it. We get up and go on the road, it’s dangerous,” he said, adding later, “Houses have probably burned down, but Christmas trees burn down homes all the time. Lets ban Christmas trees, too.”

Bill Tudwill, another firework retailer near Hodge, agreed.

He said he’s operated his stand near Eden Isles since the late 1980s and invested hundreds of thousands into the business.

“We would definitely not let you take our property without compensating us for it,” he said. “It’s unfair. It’s just not right.”