On its face legislation requiring those who want to purchase flare guns to show proof they are over the age of 21 makes sense. The proposal includes criminal penalties for those who sell flare guns to under the age of 21.

The bill (A.8920/S.8455) comes after incidents in the Albany area this summer where a flare gun was fired during a Fourth of July celebration and started a fire that destroyed two buildings. Then, an incident involving five youths who allegedly assaulted employees at a Subway restaurant included one of the youths firing a flare gun at people.

Again, on its face the bill makes sense. Had flare guns not been used in ways they weren’t intended two buildings would still be standing. And the trickle down effect of the state’s gun laws is people who want to commit harm are finding ways to fashion weapons out of items that aren’t intended to be weapons.

But the proposal by Assemblywoman Gabriella Romero and Sen. Patricia Fahy continues a trend among the state’s Democratic Party lawmakers of focusing on the means of wrong-doing and not the person committing the wrong-doing. Making it more difficult to obtain flare guns makes life more difficult for tens of thousands of New Yorkers from Arkwright to Westchester is an overreaction to a limited pattern of incidents. The lawmakers’ memorandums don’t cite statistics showing a sudden increase across the state in flare gun incidents. They aren’t showing serious injuries. They rely on the incidents in Albany.

“These bills ensure that we treat flare guns as what they have become in many dangerous cases: weapons capable of real harm,” Fahy said. “As flare gun use continues to increase here locally, this legislation sends a clear message that New York State will take strong, unequivocal action when it comes to the criminal misuse of flare guns in our communities across the Capital Region.”

Unequivocal action would be quickly and swiftly holding those who use a safety device as a weapon responsible and sending a message that such behavior is wrong. That’s not what New York state does. Raise the Age laws make it difficult to send a message to youth that their behavior needs to change. Releasing people accused of crimes with appearance tickets rather than sometimes experiencing the harsh reality of a night in jail doesn’t send a message that breaking the law has consequences.

That last we knew, flare guns don’t make the decision to be used as a weapon. People make the decision to use flare guns incorrectly. So what sense does it make to penalize a store worker who sells a flare gun rather than the person who starts a fire with the flare gun or fires the flare gun at another person? Once again, state lawmakers are faced with the choice of penalizing people who do stupid things or focusing on the instrument those people use. In our view lawmakers are choosing the wrong path.