Banning consumer fireworks?

[Tunnelcat]

Anyone here think that consumer fireworks should be outlawed nationwide? Vancouver Washington has done that starting in 2017 and already a big stink is being raised, ignoring the fact that hundreds of people are injured each year, some of which die. That's not counting fireworks caused fires that destroyed people's houses, land and businesses and the thousands of pets that freak out and go missing, all for a little once a year "fun" with legally bought explosives.

http://www.columbian.com/news/2015/sep/ ... fireworks/

http://www.traumaf.org/featured/6-29-04fireworks.html

Oh, and some poor college student just lost his foot in New York's Central Park because he stepped on a home-brewed firework project that was essentially a homemade landmine. Somebody must have thought it would be a funny 4th of July prank, because the cops don't think it's a terrorist action.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-critically ... d=40314758

[callmeslick]

to be sure, a dangerous tradition, but a tradition nonetheless. Anyone who made it past childhood should have the sense to be extremely wary. Outlaw them? Hell, no! A more effective Darwinian selection method would cost a LOT more money.

[Tunnelcat]

What, evolution will weed out the problem?

Personally, I think some people's "tradition" is fine, as long as I don't have to have my house burned down, or my ears assaulted. The problem we have here is that quite a few people drive up to Washington and buy the "big stuff" from the Native American Reservations. I'm talking M-80's, M-100's, mortars and Roman Candles. These fireworks are not playthings, but dangerous explosives that can do a lot of damage to people and property and they are almost alway in the hands of stupid people. They are technically illegal here, but just try to get the police to stop it when people set them off.....

[callmeslick]

oh, hell, most of that stuff is routine around here. I can vouch, holidays aside, that 4 M80s, lashed together and fused with a slo-burn rocket fuse might be the best whitefaced hornet nest removal method I've ever used. At least, by far the coolest. As I say, we weed a few of the slower movers from the gene pool every year, but by and large the fire risk seems to me the only major hazard from fireworks, and that varies with weather. Talk to folks from any major Eastern city. The tradition there is to fire guns into the air. Needless to say, few of those are firing blanks, so, you get a brief shower of bullets onto the ground, invariably injuring someone annually.

[Ferno]

Anyone here think that consumer fireworks should be outlawed nationwide?

What would be the point in that?

Vancouver Washington has done that starting in 2017 and already a big stink is being raised

I can see why. Was there a reasonable justification made for such a ban?

ignoring the fact that hundreds of people are injured each year, some of which die.

Wait, is that it? Tell me that's not it. Because there are a lot of other activities that hundreds of people get injured from. Like riding a bike, rollerblading, swimming, and a lot of other activities. And some people die from those too.

That's not counting fireworks caused fires that destroyed people's houses, land and businesses and the thousands of pets that freak out and go missing, all for a little once a year "fun" with legally bought explosives.

Lots of other things destroy peoples' houses. Like cooking fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, electrical fires, gas explosions and the occasional car driven by a person who mistakes the gas for the brake.

Oh, and some poor college student just lost his foot in New York's Central Park because he stepped on a home-brewed firework project that was essentially a homemade landmine. Somebody must have thought it would be a funny 4th of July prank, because the cops don't think it's a terrorist action.

The only way he could have been injured by that is if he stepped on it when it was lit. So of course the cops don't think it was a 'terrorist action', because he had a very good idea of what could happen when he stepped on it. You don't see a landmine, and when you step on one of those, it's too late.

[callmeslick]

TC's issue seems to be this sort of thing:

[Ferno]

Call it darwinism in action.

[callmeslick]

precisely why I did.

[Ferno]

I know you did. I was being a bit morbid.

[Krom]

My dad checked the city ordinances and fireworks usage in my town is illegal. Naturally they have been going off all over the place since last weekend.

You know back in the early 1900s, the way someone would do fireworks would be to light a stick of actual dynamite (yes, the high explosive kind) and toss it, yielding a nice big bang. So modern fireworks are dramatically safer than what people used to do. Although on the other hand dynamite is less likely to start fires, it just does damage more directly (same with other high explosives).

[callmeslick]

hell, give a dumbass kid with ZERO parental supervision enough freaking SPARKLERS and you get this:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas- ... li=BBnb7Kz

[Tunnelcat]

How about someone who's supposed to be smart....and know better. Sparklers are not "safe", especially when multiples are lit up all at once.

http://www.wbir.com/news/er-doctor-inju ... /262606497

What's funny this year is that it was so quiet, it was almost spooky. All I heard was the usual kiddie consumer stuff whistling in a couple of people's driveways and a couple of loud bangs from the illegal stuff. No bottle rockets or firecrackers though. I don't think the city had the money to set off the big stuff this year either. I guess we're having a fireworks depression.

Yeah Ferno, you've made all valid points. I don't disagree. I guess we should just let stupid people be stupid people, and then make that stupid neighbor pay for burning down your house since most homeowner's policies don't cover fires started by fireworks. Tsk, tsk.

[callmeslick]

http://www.theonion.com/graphic/firewor ... lMarketing

[Tunnelcat]

But then, reality strikes. You can't make this stuff up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/0 ... 60132.html