Fireworks

That's a terrible experience to have had Plastic. It must have been excruciatingly painful. I can see why you prefer the big displays. My son would only watch fireworks from the car after a tin trunk of fireworks blew up at a home event.

Two chemistry teachers were in charge - they left the trunk open and a spark got in, they managed to close the lid just before it went BOOM!!! There was a massive bulge in the trunk where one of the big fireworks exploded. Someone could easily have been killed.

I've got mixed feelings about fireworks. I have enjoyed some fabulous displays, but I have also had frightening experiences. These include a rocket misfiring along the ground towards me, firework debris nearly setting my coat on fire, a metal trunk full of fireworks being set off by a stray spark. Our old dog was inconsolable when he heard fireworks - I would definitely prefer fewer displays. Some of the big fireworks are as noisy as munitions, and that spoils the enjoyment for me. At least Jumping Jacks have been banned; they terrified me as a child when they came leaping through the grass. 

I still like fireworks. Yes, there are a number of idiots who insist on setting them off inappropriately, but I enjoy the big displays.

I don't do home fireworks since a mortar launcher blew up on the ground about 10 years ago and I've got a burn about the size of my hand on my neck/chest where the flare hit me and stuck to the flesh while still burning. It rolled down the inside of my top before burning a chunk from the skin on my stomach.

That was quite painful...

It's a really difficult issue to deal with, I can see that.  Even with a system like permits, it's going to be hard for someone to notify hundreds or maybe thousands of people that they intend setting off some fireworks one evening.  It isn't like loud music, which might affect a few houses at best, a few streets at worst.  The sound of fireworks carries for a long way - and is usually sudden and unexpected.  Liking fireworks as I do, even I jumped out of my skin one Sunday evening a few weeks back when someone let of a few of those barrel-bomb things.  I actually thought it was gunfire!

In some ways, it's another example of people saying 'I'm going to do what I like, whether you like it or not.'  Quite a selfish thing, really, when it's something potentially so anti-social.

I like fireworks too, and wouldn't want to see them abolished.  But abatement isn't about abolition, anyway.

Organised displays at appropriate times of year - festivals, Guy Fawkes Night, New Year - are well enough.  But fireworks are available all year around (I've a shop near me that sells only fireworks) and people use any excuse to let them off: a birthday, an anniversary, a barbie, etc.  They go off without warning and can scare the hell out of people.  And they can also terrify animals.  When I was growing up, you would get fireworks going off in the lead up to Guy Fawkes Night and perhaps a few nights afterwards.  But where I live - in a small town - you can get them going off all the time on weekends during the summer. 

That's why I agree - I think we all do, actually - that they need to be properly regulated.  Including prosecuting any people who haven't applied for a permit, say.

What is it exactly that you are trying to achieve?  I'm quite fond of fireworks so I wouldn't want you to be "getting rid of the fireworks menace" thank you very much!  I agree there probably needs to be some "common sense" regulation around them - e.g. not too late at night except on New Years Eve perhaps, not too often, but I think wanting to get rid of them all would not be a very popular thing to be asking for...