It didn't take long for the public outcry to happen.

Just a day after the Fourth of July, undeniably the premiere holiday to shoot off fireworks, residents across Michigan are calling for the sale of fireworks in Michigan to end.

A MoveOn.org petition to get the 2011 Michigan Fireworks Safety Act repealed is only 260 signatures away from its 30,000 goal at the time of publication, a boost from the nearly 7,000 signatures it needed days before July 4.

"This law needs to be repealed," wrote Julie Slabaugh, of Westland. "It is a law which can't be enforced. It was only approved because of revenue. Not worth the toll on vets, pets and destruction of personal property."

Cindy Whittum-McGuire of Charlotte also went after the inability to enforce the law.

"It has gotten out of hand because law enforcement cannot and does not have the means to hold people to the rules and regulations of this current law," she wrote.

Matt Wyman, of Haslett, goes further than a simple repeal.

"To properly prevent us, and future generations, from waking up at 3 a.m. to some idiot lighting-off an M-80 in a populous-dense neighborhood, or suffering through drunk idiots lighting-off a pickup-truck full of explosives the strength of which you wouldn’t trust with the most cautious of properly trained military-service men and women, you must enact legislation that will deter these simpletons from doing so," he wrote on the petition site. "And by deter, I mean deter the buyers and sellers, 365 days a year, and do so with extreme prejudice. Criminalize — yes, criminalize — any possession, sale, use, ignition, detonations, etc. of any firework (novelty, consumer, low-impact, articles pyrotechnic — anything designed to leave the ground, make a noise, or both)."

At the Wednesday, July 5, Holland City Council meeting, Rep. Mary Whiteford, R-Casco Twp., addressed the council about the budget process and other issues happening in Lansing as an update.

Holland City Councilman Myron Thethewey spoke up during Whiteford's public comment time on the fireworks issue.

"I have to say that last night I swore there was dynamite going off two blocks over," he said, speaking of the night of July 4. "I understand there's a lot of money coming in from that, I hope the state's real happy with that money because there are a lot of people that are really upset with it.

"When I have to lock my house up and put the air conditioning on so my dogs and my grandchildren are not scared, its come to a point where it's ridiculous. I'm not going to deny anybody any time for their celebrations. Thats what its all about. When I was younger, a couple of bottle rockets, what have you. But this has just gotten out of hand."

Trethewey spoke up to Whiteford personally because he called for state help in the area, specifically the stringent state rules that handcuff many municipalities.

"We need some help on the regulation, cutting the time down (for fireworks), cutting the type, whatever has to happen; we're going to have some catastrophic problems here, real quick," he said. "And I really, really feel sorry for the (veterans). I've got a daughter and son-in-law, that both served in Iraq and the first time that they came back it was heartbreaking. I don't want to see anybody go through that.

"We need to do something and we need to do something soon. Put the power back in the communities, whatever has to happen, but it needs to be brought up and it needs to be brought up very quickly."

— Follow this reporter on Twitter @SentinelJordan.