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Reading the story, he should have gotten a lighter sentence like 5 years probation and anger management classes. His wife had called the police several times reporting the fireworks, loud party, and illegal drug use and no one showed up.
I'm against the private purchase of fireworks for several reasons. First, the kinds sold today are very nearly professional grade explosives. In my youth we were limited to bottle rockets, Black cat firecrackers, Roman candles, sparklers, and other similar fire works. Stuff sold today will maim or kill a person. Second reason is immature drunks. Actually, they're the main reason. These are the guys I hope loose an eye or hand to fireworks or accidentally burn down their own home. No, they're the ones who burn down their neighbor's home, terrorize the neighbor's pets, damage vehicles, break windows, damage siding, and leave behind piles of garbage on the ground.
Gloria.....yes, I think having kids who are missing fingers or hands, or that have been blinded or disfigured by fireworks speak at schools could make a difference...... especially if parents were asked to attend that day.
They should have PSA's on TV with these kids telling what happened to them. Apparently, enough of the "right" people don't think it is a big enough problem.
Yes, it IS unbelievable. I wonder if the Fire Marshall's Office has the data. But you know, a video made by twenty children blinded by fireworks - each telling his/her story - shown to kids in elementary school - and with no "happy endings" would surely (eventually) awaken people to the danger.
And from VictimOfGM: "I'm against the private purchase of fireworks for several reasons. First, the kinds sold today are very nearly professional grade explosives. In my youth we were limited to bottle rockets, Black cat firecrackers, Roman candles, sparklers, and other similar fire works. Stuff sold today will maim or kill a person. Second reason is immature drunks. Actually, they're the main reason. These are the guys I hope loose an eye or hand to fireworks or accidentally burn down their own home. No, they're the ones who burn down their neighbor's home, terrorize the neighbor's pets, damage vehicles, break windows, damage siding, and leave behind piles of garbage on the ground."
I thought it was only my imagination that they sounded louder and more dangerous than they used to. That makes it a wholly different situation, IMHO. You know, if someone goes out and buys a box of Dynamite, then, whether or not he "Bought it at the Indian Reservation" becomes rather irrelevant. It comes under the jurisdiction of certain agencies, and unauthorized possession/handling, etc., becomes criminalized.
These El-Gigundo-sized fireworks should be under ATF jurisdiction, and unauthorized possession should be a FELONY.
And if our reservations (I'm an Indian) are truly "sovereign nations", then these dumb goobers coming in from 'America' for the purpose of transporting dangerous explosives across "international" boundaries would have to be really, really, big crime.... no?
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 01-05-2014 at 04:47 PM..
We're in the Deep South tonight, and people near us are blowing up fireworks like it was a war zone.
Just to cheer me up, I'd love some good stories about fireworks accidents - not about innocent victims, but about the Perpetrators blowing themselves to bits.
The issue is purchasing the illegal fireworks, from Indian Reservations, which are Soveriegn Nations...I don't know how laws are applied in that case.
The fireworks laws vary by state but there is what they call class C or "consumer fireworks", those would be the bigger ones and include everything from bottle rockets, cakes and small mortars. If you to about the 6 minute mark you'll see about as big as it gets for class C:
You know those cool mortars/tubes you can buy in some places? Turns out if you put them in the tube upside down they turn into a mini bomb. It also turns out that if a squirrel is running across the street after youve lit one and are running away from it.....it kills the squirrel. I felt so bad for that little fella
Back in High School I used buy Ground Bloom Flowers. I would drill from one end to just about the other end. Then I would tip it up on the end with the hole, light it, and watch it shoot up in the air like a rocket. Well one time the drill bit got to hot and BOOM!!! it blew up in my hand, and peeled some of my skin back. I still remember the pain. I did learn a important lesson and never dimantled or modified any fireworks ever again.
Fireworks are as big here as randomly shooting guns is in Texas. They shoot em off for New Years, Memorial Day, the Fourth, Christmas....and at random times in between just for giggles.
So, two years ago...long, dry spring. Constant public service warnings on TV about not having open fires, and don't set off fireworks in such dry conditions.
So, who is selling fireworks? On a couple of road intersections the local fire departments have these huge retail fireworks sales for the Fourth! Not a couple of boxes of sparklers, but thousands of cases of everything imaginable!
I was speechless!
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