Topic: I don't get it - fireworks after the 4th

[eigenvector]

I'm a bit baffled by how some people celebrate the 4th.

Fireworks are banned except on the 4th, yet I'm hearing more fireworks from my neighbors yesterday and today than I heard from them on the 3rd and 4th.   In fact, there really weren't that many fireworks set off on the 4th around where I live, so my question - why on earth would they be setting them off today, illegally, when they could have enjoyed a better show on the day they could legally set them off?  I just don't get it - these aren't firecrackers and those small noisy red rocket packs, they're big aerial display rockets and mortars, stuff that probably cost them 10 to 20 bucks apiece.

I just don't understand people.

[Steve F]

In my area, fireworks are illegal all the time, not allowed at all, but they're setting them off a week before and 3 or 4 days after.
My dog hates those things and it's a pain to get her to go outside to do business when they're shooting them off for a week and a half.
Oh, and you'll NEVER be able to fully understand the human race. No point in trying.

[70CB750]

Where I live I would be worried if I did not hear shooting on the weekend or anytime during the week - firearms or fireworks 

[Bailgang]

I have a neighbor across from me that rents his house as a party house/weekend getaway for whoever has the $. He had bought the house to fix it up and flip it but after sinking a small fortune in it that's when the housing market took a dive so he's been renting it out by the weekend or entire week depending on how much you want to spend in order to recoup his investment. For the most part the different party animals that rent it keep to themselves but every now and then someone uses the mortar canon that the owner has on the lake front and some times it sounds like a war zone. I'm not talking whimpy bottle rockets but the big stuff that rattles the windows of the house. I actually don't mind it so long as it's on a night that I don't have to work the next morn but one night some idiot was setting them off on a week night where I had to be up at 3 AM and couldn't sleep because they were lighting off some serious boomers. Another neighbor beat me to the phone and called the cops who promptly shut them down. I don't know the law on the subject but they've been getting away with it for a while now.

[74cb750]

Where I live I would be worried if I did not hear shooting on the weekend or anytime during the week - firearms or fireworks 

same here. All the neighbors have some serious firepower.

[Duke McDukiedook]

'MURICUH!!!!!

[Bob Wessner]

The mortars sound like real mortars they don't belong in neighborhoods. 

[Duanob]

How many houses in the US were burned down over the fourth I wonder? Our state has seen the driest conditions ever. Every municipality pleaded to go easy with the fireworks especially the aerials this year. Did anybody listen? A little. There were still lot's of fires started and a few houses burned up. It was fairly quiet the day before and the day after, that was new. Our section 8 welfare neighbors down the street were moved out last year so nobody spent their entire monthly welfare check on illegal works and the cops were not called to our block due to drunken brawls. I guess that's an improvement! 

[vfourfreak]

We had a Ton of fireworks for the 14th July. That's Bastille day here, when we commerate the revolution and the beheading of the Royalty and other aristocrats.

All good fun.  I just sat at a cafe drinking wine as the dilettante that I aspire to be.  Watched the crowds come back through town afterwards and was amazed how many had their little lap dogs wih them who had been reduced to quivering wrecks, little doggies who with any luck had pissed on their owners cardigans.

C'est la vie.

Kev

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Here's one that's not only stupid funny, but actually true:

http://www.medicaldaily.com/mom-22-year-old-man-who-died-after-lighting-fireworks-his-head-wants-stricter-laws-341724

Devon Staples, 22, was killed instantly this past 4th of July weekend after he attempted to light a firework off the top of his head. Staples had been drinking with some friends at a friend’s home in Calais, Maine this past Saturday night when the group went out to the back deck to light fireworks. Staples died after a reloadable firework mortar tube exploded on the top of his head. Staples’ friends and his older brother Cory Staples said they tried to dissuade him, but he ended up going through with his fateful decision.

Staples’ mother is now calling for lawmakers to consider safety training courses for anyone who wishes to work with or handle fireworks.  According to her: “It was a freak accident … But Devon was not the kind of person who would do something stupid. He was the kind of person who would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh.”

REALLY??!  Because firing a mortar on the top of your head sounds pretty stupid!!

[Bailgang]

Devon was not the kind of person who would do something stupid. He was the kind of person who would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh.”

REALLY??!  Because firing a mortar on the top of your head sounds pretty stupid!!

I have a cousin who is an xray technician. He said he had someone show up in the ER over the 4th who had tried shooting off a home made roman candle, I guess the thing "backfired" so bad that it broke the persons femur.

[ekpent]

They probably bought a bunch at a closeout after season price and just couldn't resist blowing them off.  My dogs are not very fond of them either.

[70CB750]

Still better to sell some fireworks legally than ban them completely.

In my country before the Wall people were using military issue rockets to celebrate new year - or making their own.  Either way, more dangerous than the stuff sold over the counter.

[Johnie]

Eric I think you hit it on the head...discounts. There is a large fireworks store down the road and after the 4th they mark stuff down 40% - 70%. That encourages people to buy late and shoot late. The stuff must be really over priced to lower it 70%.

[ofreen]

I just don't understand people.

I don't have any particular insight but my guess is they think it is fun and people like to have fun. And for some people, the fact that their fun annoys other people only adds to it. Hey, maybe I do have insight. Probably should write a book.

[flybox1]

It was all downhill the day we learned to make fire 

[ofreen]

It was all downhill the day we learned to make fire 

Especially when we learned to make fire go boom.

[Duanob]

I just don't understand people.

I don't have any particular insight but my guess is they think it is fun and people like to have fun. And for some people, the fact that their fun annoys other people only adds to it. Hey, maybe I do have insight. Probably should write a book.

Sounds like the ideology of a Harley Davidson!

[Duke McDukiedook]

I just don't understand people.

I don't have any particular insight but my guess is they think it is fun and people like to have fun. And for some people, the fact that their fun annoys other people only adds to it. Hey, maybe I do have insight. Probably should write a book.

Sounds like the ideology of a Harley Davidson!

Let's call these types what they are- #$%*s. Plain and simple garden variety #$%*s.

[eigenvector]

I just don't understand people.

I don't have any particular insight but my guess is they think it is fun and people like to have fun. And for some people, the fact that their fun annoys other people only adds to it. Hey, maybe I do have insight. Probably should write a book.

I suppose everything makes perfect sense when it's distilled down to the most neutral terms possible.

[ofreen]

I suppose everything makes perfect sense when it's distilled down to the most neutral terms possible.

Occam's Razor.

[scottly]

A San Bernardino County sheriff deputy once told me a story about a call he responded to for a report of explosive sounds near Big Bear Lake. Upon arriving at the scene, he and his partner found it was their boss, the head sheriff's vacation cabin, and the loud noises were coming from a black-powder muzzle loading cannon, firing "blanks" for the amusement of his guests. The deputies were in a bad situation, and politely asked him to keep it quiet, but before they had even gotten out of earshot, they heard the cannon go off again. They didn't go back...   

[70CB750]

Leaders of my wife's church in MD were into potato guns. 

The church would be having picnic and these old geezer somewhere near would be shooting potatoes and crimpled paper balls out of water pipes 

[Duke McDukiedook]

A San Bernardino County sheriff deputy once told me a story about a call he responded to for a report of explosive sounds near Big Bear Lake. Upon arriving at the scene, he and his partner found it was their boss, the head sheriff's vacation cabin, and the loud noises were coming from a black-powder muzzle loading cannon, firing "blanks" for the amusement of his guests. The deputies were in a bad situation, and politely asked him to keep it quiet, but before they had even gotten out of earshot, they heard the cannon go off again. They didn't go back...

What a dick. Entitled, jerkwad cop.
Bet he was a real peach to have for a neighbor. 

[Duanob]

Leaders of my wife's church in MD were into potato guns. 

The church would be having picnic and these old geezer somewhere near would be shooting potatoes and crimpled paper balls out of water pipes 

How much more fun can you have with a potatoe?  I rather shoot em than eat em.