The fireworks industry complains that President Obama’s regulators are “completely insane” by forcing so many rules on their patriotic industry.

Fireworks use is up, but the rate of injuries is down, says Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association.

She told POLITICO, “the overall usage of backyard consumer fireworks has increased significantly during the past decade, and when you look at the use of fireworks and compare then the number of injuries, actually, the injury rate has declined. I’m not aware of one other consumer product on the market today where the usage has risen so dramatically, yet the injuries have gone down.”

Self-policing by the industry is a big part of that, she says, with self-imposed standards that are tougher than federal regulations to make fireworks safer.

But Heckman complains, “I’ve been working with the industry for a very long time, 26 years.  I have never seen as many rulemaking initiatives as I have with this administration.  It has just been completely insane. . . . we’ve got to comply with ATF, CPSC, EPA, OSHA, multiple divisions of the Department of Transportation; it’s really challenging.”

Read the interview at POLITICO: Fireworks lobby to Obama: Enough with all the rules