That seems weird to me…many years ago (I think I was in my late teens) I was holding a lit firecracker when someone distracted me and made me forget to throw it. Maybe it helps that I was holding it lightly between my thumb and forefinger, and I was probably somewhat lucky, but I was uninjured. My finger and thumb were numb for about 5 or 10 minutes and felt weird for an hour or so, but that was it.
He came back from holiday break with fingers and hand bandaged. Once the bandages came off, I never examined very closely. I could tell that part of two fingers were missing and another finger looked different. I did not witness the accident so I don’t know how this happened. Maybe it was some other kind of fireworks. Thinking back, I can’t remember his exact response when I asked. Sorry, I can’t be certain of his explanation or my memory of any details. I always think of this kid when people talk about safety and fireworks. It was indeed a very bad injury and I know his explanation involved fireworks.
Sven: you prove my point. You use fireworks where they are legal. You don’t where they are not.
Because you follow the law, you can’t imagine the mentality of someone who has no regard for the law. Your “reasoning” as to who will use fireworks and where is flawed based on your own morals and ethics.
Rest assured that not everyone shares your morals and ethics.
Rest assured also, that if rubber balls were outlawed, and my seven year old daughter wanted one, I’d get her one if I had to make it myself, if I had to pay $100 for one. And that’s just a rubber ball. Are you getting any of this? Which part of “if it’s illegal and people want it they will get it” don’t you understand? The example I pointed out- R-12. It’s a refrigerant used in car air conditioners, to any non-gearheads out there. It was banned a couple of years back because it damages the ozone if released. As I stated, many cars can be retrofitted to R134, but the people who have old classic cars and are sticklers about keeping them original are buying R12 from mexico and bringing it as far as Green Bay,(probably further but that’s all I have evidence of with my own eyes) and selling it at a premium to antique car people. certainly, nobody would go to that sort of trouble for something as unwanted as fireworks. Right?
As to adding a layer of illegality: Ask someone on your local police force if they WANT to spend time chasing down people who are in the illegal posession of fireworks. Chances are you’ll find that they feel burdened enough already- the police in this country- and especially in small towns are overworked, tend to be overpaid, and have enough crap to deal with without putting another uninforceable restriction on the books. Kellym has already made it clear that it’s “not worth the time” to call the cops on a fireworks infraction, and that “they won’t come anyway- they’ll just laugh”(paraphrased)
By the way, Kelly- I asked my neighbor last night if they had any leftover bottle rockets. Of course, they did. I borrowed a few and grabbed some newspapers and the weber grill. I piled up newspapers on the grill, loosely, and wire-tied the bottle rocket to the grate. I then lit said bottle rocket and made sure it’s exhaust was directed at the newspapers. After buring the entire rocket (which you wouldn’t have gotten, you got the rocket at the end of the trajectory) the newspapers were of course on fire. Not a big fire, mind you, but fire. I was, however, able to extinguish the fire simply by placing another newspaper directly on top of the burning one. I then actually placed a bottle rocket into a folded newspaper and lit it, letting it burn all the way down. the paper did not actually come to full flame but did smoulder, and could perhaps have been broght to full flame with some effort. So the danger you were in was probably not as severe as you thought. Actually while i was at it I tried to light a fire with a newspaper (exactly as it came out of the paperbox). It’s not easy. A little quick thinking (open doors, throw burning stuff out) would have eliminated the problem.
Unless of course it was the type of bottle rocket that explodes. but then, they were illegal all over Illinois anyway, unless you were going to school in 1964.
b.
Billy, quit being so goddamn snotty.
Even Sven is correct. If fireworks were banned throughout the US, they would be very difficult to obtain and very costly. Not very many people would be willing to risk smuggling them accross the border when there are much more profitable things to smuggle, so the quantity lit off would be greatly reduced and a a result, so would injuries and damage. Billy’s point is that every casualty is caused by someone who would succeed in obtaining them in the exact same quantities as before, so a ban would have no effect whatsoever. There are plenty of people who are law-abiding but clumsy (and besides, they give them to their kids) and there are people (like me) who are devious but cheap, and not so clumsy. My estimate would be that if If fireworks were banned the quantity available would be reduced by maybe 99%, while the total casualties would be reduced by 98%. Does that sound reasonable?
Then again, my point is not that fireworks are as dangerous as all that, but only if they are as dangerous as all that. I too have had a firecracker go off in my hand with results similar to Badz Maru, and just now performed experiments similar to those of Billy above, and couldn’t even get the newspapers to light on fire. I’ll leave it at that.
I assume, Billy, that your house is full of lawn darts, old-style baby walkers and buckets of lead paint?
I hear the black market for lawn darts is booming. People bring 'em in from Mexico by the truckload!
Dude, how did I miss this thread?!
Hi Bricker, I see that you are in Mighty_Land. Enjoy.
I have to add that fireworks ARE “regulated” in this country. The regulation has become very relaxed because of the idiocy of our authorities (but that is another subject). This year there were 14 kids injured around Christmas, there must have been more until today when the holidays end.
In this particular country I am all for regulation. Vendors are not supposed to sell them to minors, yet they fail constantly to respect the law. In a country with so little legal recourse there isn’t much parents can do to make vendors respect the law. And unfortunately there isn’t much some parents do to get their children out of harms way.
And yes, we tend to live a little haphazardly here, we have a sense of inmortality that amazes me at times.
This is one of those issues that is really about something else. Should the government have the right to restrict what I can do on my own time because someone might get hurt? You can ask the same question about certain drugs, firearms, etc. Ultimately its about drawing the line somewhere. Personally I feel the government goes overboard with this kind of thing. If I want to smoke pot I should be able to, regardless that people get hurt doing so. I feel its the same with fireworks. Yeah, people will die, houses will burn down. But at the same time I feel my right to do what I want (within reason, we’re drawing a line here) should not be determined by the government with respect to such things.