We take little pleasure in thanking the General Assembly for a veto override last week that allows homeowners and homeowners associations to ban fireworks on nearby public land. Gov. Mark Sanford's veto of the bill last month was an expression of his tendency to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

The fireworks bill, guided through the 2004 General Assembly by S.C. Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach, is imperfect. As Sanford noted in his veto message, it allows private individuals to perform a government function.

In a perfect world of Sanford's making, the state would give S.C. county councils the power to ban fireworks on a local basis. Municipal councils long have had this power. Most towns and cities in the region have used it to restrict the ignition of fireworks within municipal limits.

Clemmons, in concert with the S.C. fireworks lobby, crafted the bill that now becomes law with full knowledge that it would allow homeowners and their associations to do work that the state should be doing. Most legislators were unwilling to give counties the power to ban or restrict fireworks beyond the restrictions that the state already imposes. But most legislators were willing to empower private individuals to mitigate fireworks danger near their homes. Understanding that politics is the art of the possible, Clemmons keyed the bill to that harsh political reality.

The now-passed legislation should prove useful. Especially along Shore Drive in unincorporated Horry County, unrestricted fireworks use long has been a perpetual annoyance to homeowners and visitors. More important, it presents a fire danger for wooden structures. Now, homeowners have the power to ban fireworks use adjacent to their homes and to call the police when pyrotechnic violations of their sanity and safety take place.

None of this is to suggest that Sanford is wrong to exhort legislators to add fireworks bans and restrictions to S.C. counties' home-rule powers.

This would be good lawmaking in the public interest.

But until such time as an outbreak of common sense on fireworks regulation sweeps the General Assembly, the current legislation will have to do.

It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn good.