While some may see Staples’ unfortunate accident as a nominee for the Darwin Awards, his mother, Kathleen Staples, sees it as a call for stricter laws regarding who can and cannot handle explosives.

..."That's an explosive. They didn't just hand me a license and put me in the car."

According to authorities, Staples had been drinking with some friends at a friend’s home in Calais, Maine this past Saturday night when the group went out to the back deck to light fireworks. Staples died after a reloadable firework mortar tube exploded on the top of his head. Staples’ friends and his older brother Cory Staples said they tried to dissuade him, but he ended up going through with his fateful decision.

Staples’ mother is now calling for lawmakers to consider safety training courses for anyone who wishes to work with or handle fireworks. Although she said her son thought the firework was a “dud,” meaning it wouldn’t go off, State Fire Marshal Joe Thomas believes that to be unlikely because it had already been fired and he "can't imagine someone would anticipate that it was a dud."

“There was no rushing him to the hospital. There was no Devon left when I got there,” Cody Staples told the NY Daily News. “It was a freak accident … But Devon was not the kind of person who would do something stupid.