Wanted to share a funny *theft* related story :)

[retdetsgt]

Fireworks are illegal in our area for good reason. People have been seriously injured or killed by their misuse. In most cases, alcohol played a role (surprise, surprise) Yes, enforcement has been somewhat lax in the last few years, but only because the number of police officers has declined, while the number of calls for service has gone up. We just don't have the time to enforce those ordnances unless a complaint is made... or an injury results.

+1

Illegal fireworks is a different subject altogether. If I were a little less civilized, I'd be taking a tire iron to some of my neighbors over them. When I was living in another neighborhood, I braced one of my idiot neighbors when I found several expended rockets in my driveway. Fortunately for both of us, none had landed on my pickup which was parked there. I have a moron living in the cul de sac behind me who likes to shoot off some serious ****. But even the police in my little town are too busy on the 4th to handle all the calls.

Oregon has very strict laws on fireworks, but unfortunately Washington doesn't. You can buy damn near anything across the river. Portland's fire marshal's office has actually put firemen watching the parking lots of big wholesale fireworks dealers and radioed Oregon plates back. We've then stopped the cars when they come back across the river and arrested them for the fireworks. I'd like to see their cars impounded.

[wisco]

Fireworks are illegal in our area for good reason. People have been seriously injured or killed by their misuse. In most cases, alcohol played a role (surprise, surprise) Yes, enforcement has been somewhat lax in the last few years, but only because the number of police officers has declined, while the number of calls for service has gone up. We just don't have the time to enforce those ordnances unless a complaint is made... or an injury results.

I guarantee you, if your blase attitude about fireworks results in property damage, an injury or death, you will be charged criminally, and held liable civilly... just like the two morons that launched the flare.

Ya know Curt, I did wonder why it had gotten somewhat lax. I remember not so long ago they were really adamant about it.

While I agree that you have a point on the chosen storage location of the fireworks, I do like to think that we used them responsibly. On 60 acres of open field with no structures or trees in sight, which is what we always do, specifically to avoid a potential accident.

[wisco]

Oregon has very strict laws on fireworks, but unfortunately Washington doesn't.

It's even more weird here. Just about everything is illegal, yet I can drive to the Milwaukee area and there's several fireworks stores chock full of everything from 4 foot rockets to 4" mortars.

I honestly don't know how they get away with it.

[Trip]

This was a really good thread. Did a good job of demonstrating the pros and cons of an issue. As for my 2 cents, every 4th of July my brothers got their hands on fireworks, and every 4th, someone we knew got hurt. And I can remember my mother telling my brothers every year it was only a matter of time before they would blow their hands off. Or their faces.

[greg72982]

Just work every 4th like I do and you don't need to worry about endangering yourself with fireworks...

[Creeker]

This past July 4th, my wife's nephew... and I guess mine, too... a big bad 32 year old NYC Fireman was here with his GF.

He went to a local Fireworks place and blew about $100 ... for him it was a fortune... on some bottle rockets and about a dozen Roman Candles and some other such crap with big fancy names, lots of sparklies and very little bang.

It was hilarious to sit in the backyard by my In-laws pool and watch him light one at a time, then run like a little girl, as if his Arse was on fire. It was too damn dark for the video on my phone to see anything. He actually screamed and ducked behind his Girlfriend when a Roman Candle fell over in mid-discharge, despite it being pointed toward the road 100 yards away.

My point is, things that in a hyper-regulated, over protective, economicaly restrictive place like NYC, which is chock full of fruits and nuts in a compacted area are many times treated differently than in a more rural, less regulated farmland which has its share of fruits and nuts, but they are spread out over a more distant plain and can't all be blown up at the same time.

We become accustomed to what we grow up with in many cases. In others, I suspect that some freedoms have been trained out of us by Liberal establishments.

I daresay that when I discovered a pistol casually tucked into a windshield glass technicians back pocket while he worked, rather than me asking him about it nonchalantly, a LEO in other locations would be putting him on his face, as if he had some nerve to exercise his God given Right.

[retdetsgt]

I don't think fireworks regulations are because of liberal thinking, but common sense. There are some nasty fireworks out there that are little more than miniature bombs.

I shudder when I think about the stuff I played with when I was a kid and there were no laws at all. I had several smaller firecrackers go off in my hand back then and was fortunate none were cherry bombs or M-80's. Otherwise I would have been doing something else for a living.

And when you get into a highly populated area, it's real easy to start infringing on other peoples' rights. When I have to get up at 5 a.m. to go to work and some moron is in his front yard at midnight setting off loud explosives, that's not okay. And the example of the rockets being shot towards my truck is another example.

I believe in the 2nd Amendment too, but that doesn't mean I want some dummy shooting his deer rifle in my neighborhood either.

[MikeG]

T
My point is, things that in a hyper-regulated, over protective, economicaly restrictive place like NYC, which is chock full of fruits and nuts in a compacted area are many times treated differently than in a more rural, less regulated farmland which has its share of fruits and nuts, but they are spread out over a more distant plain and can't all be blown up at the same time.

.

Fiireworks? Heck, if we can get people to stop shooting off their guns on the 4th, we'll start worrying about fireworks. We were getting lots of random gunshot injuries from falling rounds. Had to make a law named after a girl killed on the fourth to stiffen the penalites.

here though, I think fireworks are even worse in the undeveloped areas because it's right at the end of our dry season and very hot. Fire danger is very high as all the winter and spring growth has all dried out.

[Cat_Doc]

Fiireworks? Heck, if we can get people to stop shooting off their guns on the 4th, we'll start worrying about fireworks. We were getting lots of random gunshot injuries from falling rounds. Had to make a law named after a girl killed on the fourth to stiffen the penalites.

Yep. We take that very seriously. Zero tolerance, no slack...you are booked for a felony and your name and mug shot is pasted all over the place.

[Creeker]

I daresay the argument using shooting a rifle in the air as opposed to a bottle rocket is apples and oranges.

For those who don't know, a bottle rocket makes a whooshing noise as it goes into the air and a barely noticeable pop when it reaches around 100 feet. There are larger "candles" but it is unusual to see one launch higher than 200 feet or so, unless the pros are setting shells off.

When the rocket comes down, the empty cardboard wrapper and stabilizing stick weigh little more than a drinking straw... usually in your own yard or on your roof.

A rifle bullet... depending on the caliber... travels for roughly a mile, and while I was working, I worked a scene in which a bullet landed on the roof of a mobile home, traveled through the ceiling, then bounced off of the sofa beside a woman who was watching tv. It was pretty mangled, but seemed to be about a .223 round, probably fired from the Reservoir less than a half mile away.

Gunfire into the air as a celebratory tool is pretty much Third World habit, and we don't see that... maybe because we have cheaper bottle rockets than what a bullet costs.

As to the "work at 0500" argument, thats what noise ordinances are for. I live close to our Community Center, and have loud parties going on up until midnight. I have a very light sleeping wife and when I hear noise coming from there after that time, I make use of my tax dollar to call my locals on the non-emergency line, then I call the Manager who sets up the rentals, and they (supposedly) keep part of their deposit based upon their failure to comply with the rental rules.

See, I can "Apple & Orange" too.

Fireworks are banned in my town all year except for July 4 and January 1, and that works pretty well.

[retdetsgt]

Where did I mention bottle rockets? I'm talking about illegal fireworks. The rockets in my front yard were not bottle rockets.

Shooting guns in the air have been prevalent here since I started in 1970. At first it was only in the black section of town, now the PWT have started doing it.

Noise ordinances don't work that well with fireworks when the people hide when the police come around. It's not like a party where they don't see them coming and can't shut it down quickly.

Apples and oranges.....