The fireworks bill before the Metro Council fizzled out on its second reading last week, a total dud. Too bad.

As originally introduced by Council Member Dave Rosenberg, the bill would have allowed smaller, consumer-grade fireworks in Nashville July 3-5 between the hours of noon and 11 p.m.

“Fireworks use is 100% illegal now,” Rosenberg told fellow members, “but the reality is the large fireworks-shooting community either doesn’t know it’s illegal or doesn’t care it’s illegal.

“We have this law on the books, but we don’t enforce it. As a result, it’s a free-for-all. So this proposal sets specific parameters under which the use but never the sale of fireworks would be permitted.”

Fireworks are an All-American tradition, notwithstanding their ancient Chinese roots.

“Legend has it that Capt. John Smith set off the first fireworks display in the American colonies in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608,” the American Pyrotechnics Safety & Education Foundation reports. “He and other settlers used the fireworks to celebrate special events.”

Their association with the Fourth of July has the endorsement of John Adams, one of the leading Founding Fathers: “It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more,” he declaimed.

I’m taking the broad view here, assuming “illuminations” applies to bottle rockets, Roman candles, aerial displays, that sort of thing. Adams was actually referring to July 2, the day the Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare independence and the date he thought would be celebrated. But the sentiment, like the celebration, is movable.

My nit with Rosenberg’s proposal is that it didn’t go far enough. I’m a fireworks fan from way back, with some of my past activities falling into the stupid category, like bottle rocket wars. And I’m still woefully behind on the karmic ledger, owing to my firecracker-enabled demolitions of ant beds.

Those explosive exploits were not limited just to the Fourth season. In my Mississippi hometown, Christmas and New Year’s were also considered worthy of small-scale celebratory detonations. If I’d had my druthers, Rosenberg’s bill would have made allowances for those dates, as well.

But I’ll take what I can get. And though the bill still would have required venturing outside Davidson County to purchase the munitions, it seemed a reasonable price to pay.

Three amendments adopted by the Council quickly reduced what I could get: The operative date was cut to July 4 alone; 30 minutes were shaved off the time, making it noon to 10:30 p.m.; and a sunset provision limited it to just this year, unless extended by another Council vote.

Rosenberg was willing to take what he could get, too. He said that among his bill’s potential benefits could be a reduction in the number of 911 complaints called in to emergency operators.

“They are unable to respond to most fireworks calls on the Fourth,” he said. “What that means is the 911 center gets a call, the resident is told police or fire will be coming out and nobody ever shows up. That increases frustration with Metro, decreases confidence in our first responders.”

“I want you to keep in mind,” he added, “all this does is allow people to do what is happening already.”

For one day. For 10 1/2 hours.

Even the scaled-down version was too much for most council members, however. Several among them raised objections, including fire hazards, the slippery slope potential and the risk of producing even more anxiety than already exists among the pet population.

“My two four-legged babies are running over the house losing their doggone minds because of all of the fireworks,” Antoinette Lee says.

Perhaps the most damaging objection came from Joy Styles. She acknowledged the difficulty of policing the situation, but added, “The solution is not to tell people we just can’t do our jobs.”

Even as a fireworks supporter, I found that a potent argument. Maybe others did, too: The bill failed 20 to 13, with one abstention. So once again, legal fireworks will chiefly be limited to the city’s Fourth celebration downtown.

Which, I must admit, puts on a pretty good illumination.

Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville.