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Personally I love,love,love mortars! They have been my favorite for years and are fine "if" you use them with some common sense.
I always secure the tubes to a piece of plywood and step away after lighting. The explosive power of those when they launch is considerable which is not surprising given how high they go before fully detonating. If one reads and follows the directions on the package one will most times have a good outcome but one has to be able to follow directions to begin with.
I remember several years ago some idiot a street over (in CA) decided he was going to put on a show. I'm guessing he wasn't very familiar with them either because he was drunk from CA where everything is illegal (or both) because he lit it, it fell/ was knocked over and when it went off it hit a car, shattered the side window and exploded inside.
He was damn lucky it didn't hit a person or go into someone's house, that would've been real ugly.
I live in a college town and this happens every time a freshman drinks way too much and chokes on his/her own vomit once back in their dorm room. A sad occurrence, for sure, but the parents always demand that the university be held responsible for it. It's never, never, never the little darling's fault for making bad choices.
That’s right, she isn’t blaming her son, or circumstance for the 4th of July death. She is blaming the fireworks and the lack of even more laws regulating them.
Devon Staples, 22, was – by all accounts – drinking with his friends when he accidentally blew himsefl up with a mortar tube. But apparently his mother is not blaming the alcohol.
I am sorry this woman lost her son. I blame it on his age and alcohol.
I also feel for the mother.
That said, her focus is in the wrong place. The overwhelming reason this occurred is because of the juvenile and irresponsible behavior of her own son.
If anything, a comparative analogy exposing her misplaced indignation would be a group of citizens, demand better parenting to keep kids from doing stupid things(i.e. her fault this happened).
Think the mother knows better but is devastated and just not thinking. She knows her son was lacking under the influence and will be mortified when this makes the news. If not then yes be go back to you can't fix stupid.
What do you mean when it "makes the news", it already made the news right after it happened, that he was drinking.
No parent should have to bury a child, but in this case keeping a low profile and letting the details of his death fade away, would have been better than reviving the stupidity of the whole situation.
I read an article that quoted the friend that was standing five feet away, that said it was an explosion, and that his friend immediately fell to the ground, and when he ran to him, his friend wasn't there anymore, that it was too late. So it obviously blew most of the top of his head off.
Again, that is why I suspect it was put in backwards. A long time ago when I first used one of these, I put it in backwards, so it shot, a bunch of flames came out, then it exploded the entire tube. Fortunately I was at a safe distance (as you should always be).
The tube is just cardboard, but it can take repeated launches so the launch charge is not as destructive and his head is stronger than the tube. The fact that his head was damaged indicates to me that the display charge which is significantly more powerful detonated.
"Tougher fireworks laws"? In NJ, it is illegal to shoot your own fireworks off, but that doesn't stop people from going to PA, buying them, then setting them off every July 4 and NYE anyway. Tougher laws won't stop idiots from setting off fireworks in dangerous circumstances, especially drunk idiots.
Sorry her son died, but he has no one to blame but himself. Maybe his friends are a little culpable, too, but he's the one who decided to place a firework on his head. Pretty sure the dangers of fireworks are quite obvious and anyone who uses them uses them at their own risk.
Again, that is why I suspect it was put in backwards. A long time ago when I first used one of these, I put it in backwards, so it shot, a bunch of flames came out, then it exploded the entire tube. Fortunately I was at a safe distance (as you should always be).
The tube is just cardboard, but it can take repeated launches so the launch charge is not as destructive and his head is stronger than the tube. The fact that his head was damaged indicates to me that the display charge which is significantly more powerful detonated.
If rules were relaxed, more undesirables would be removed from the gene pool.
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They have been my favorite for years and are fine "if" you use them with some common sense.
