h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone share my view that fireworks should be contained to organised displays only?

(forgive me if this topic has been discussed already, I've not checked the backlog! )

There have been groups of kids (10-15yr olds) round this area that have been setting off fireworks/bangers for weeks now.
The streets are a mess with empty firework shells.
The noise is unbelievable, my son, my dog & myself are all demented. It starts around 7pm(ish) and carries on past midnight some nights.

They're throwing them in gardens too, not fun.

I love fireworks....when I go to displays to see them. Proper safety procedures and all that.
I'm not a stick in the mud by any accounts, but I'm seroiusly hacked off.

Kids messing about with fireworks is not just annoying, it's dangerous.

I agree wholheartedly. I love watching organised displays but we seem to have fireworks going off at all hours at any time of year. The worst ones are those with little or no pretty sparks just really loud bangs - sounding like a hundred cars backfiring at once. Particularly irksome when they wake my 15 month old daughter at 2am (yes really!). I don't even want to think about the injuries inflicted by idiots lobbing them about ...

As Wilbur Larch would say, in other parts of the world, fireworks (at least the big ones ) *are* contained to organised displays

Even as a self confessed pryophiliac (if not maniac ), the idea gets my approval

OK

But what constitutes an organised display. It would need to be exactly defined.

Would you need a license to buy fireworks and if so who would issue it? The already overloaded magistrates presumeably.

Who would police the system? The already over-pressed and over-worked police force who dont have enough resources to investigate even quite major crimes properly?

What would all this cost and who would pay for it?

In theory you may well be right but there are practical considerations that mitigate against it.

And letting off fireworks in the street is already illegal. Doesn't seem to make a lot of difference does it?

Purchase is already restricted (in the UK) to adults - so if younger people are mucking about with them, they must have convinced an irresponsible adult to buy for them or sell them to them.

Firework legislation:
http://www.fireworkwarehouse.co.uk/legislation.htm

But these rules aren't commonly known. How many of you (in the UK) knew, for example (with respect to "private use" not sale) "The Explosives Act 1875 permits the storage of a limited quantity of fireworks (5Kg) for an unlimited period of time, or the storage of an unlimited quantity of fireworks for up to 14 days prior to their use."

Ændr

We've been discussing this on a police forum I visit. Their general opinion is that people mucking about with fireworks is extremely dangerous and they'll do everything they can to stop it - which is, unfortunately, not all that much due to problems with resources.

If it was up to me and money wasn't a problem, I'd have the lot of them carted away and left in a hole somewhere.

In the Republic of Ireland, fireworks are illegal, except in organised displays. But most people smuggle them in from Northern Ireland. This is quite blatant. The very first building you meet as you cross the border into Northern Ireland is a shop selling fireworks at factory prices!

Fireworks can be dangerous, but with proper use they are not that dangerous. Even with improper use they do not seem to be that dangerous (I am not sure of deaths caused by fireworks in the UK, but I do not think it is even in double digits per year - of course I could be wrong, but I could not find any info on deaths caused by fireworks). So why do you want to stop irresposible people playing with dangerous things? You want people to act responsibly then they need to find out why they should have to act responsibly. Having your own hand blown off, or maybe severe burns on a friend will help you get responsibility, or at least make you think a bit harder about what you are doing. It is not as if there are no adverts, and public service announcements running telling you how dangerous these things are. Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

I think the places licenced to sell fireworks needs a rethink...alldays sell them - now when I was younger we all used to go to alldays to get alcohol, because often the person they had selling it would be either a friend from school or another underager who would empathise (or who we could intimidate)...maybe if all fireworks had to be labelled with the place of purchase, then when kids are caught with them prosecuting the shop would be relatively straight forward (especialliy as most shops now usefully had cctv cameras).

When we went to do our weekly shop on sunday I was amazed to see fireworks available at sainsburys...yes they were locked up but considering this is a store where the staff are almost always overworked and looking visably stressed/hassled I doubt it would be difficult for someone to get fireworks when they aren't old enough.

On another matter when I turned 14 one of the things I'm sure I became entitled to was to buy fireworks (I might be getting it muddled with buying a pet) my book on ages might have been out of date (knowing my school it almost certainly was) but I'm pretty sure the age at which you can buy fireworks has only changed in the last few years or so...I thought it was 16 not 18 and I'm sure there are people working behind the counter in licenced shops who are also under the wrong impression.

Oooh! 5th of November this year is the 3rd anniversary of me passing my driving test

Anyway, with that aside - responsible people with fireworks, perhaps, but accidents happen. Frequently, if you believe the publicity - and even to the most responsible people.

Another argument for it, I think, is that if lots of people go to an organised display they get to see far better fireworks than if they each have a small one at home, simply due to the expense.

Plus, there are so many people I've met who I wouldn't trust with a firework of any kind...

If the age isn't 18 then it damn well should be!
I've heard recently that they are going to ban the production of the "Single Bang" fireworks, which are the biggest nuisance in my experience, the ones that are most abused.
I have some sympathy for letting the little darlings learn at first hand why they shouldn't muck about with explosives, but there's always going to be some innocent bystander who, the law of sod suggests, is more likely to get hurt than said yob. And then there are the stories about animals getting bangers put somewhere unmentionable.
Hanging's too good for 'em...

I've thought for a long time that only organised displays should be allowed to have fireworks displays, because fireworks shouldn't be on sale to the general public.

It's not just teenagers that are irresponsible with them - I have some friends who had to make a very sharp exit when a firework they let fly accross the grass headed towards a crate of beer.

Making it harder to get hold of fireworks would solve quite a few of the problems, while still allowing small Scout groups (for instance) to hold a small display without having to fill in reams of paperwork to get a licence first.

When I lived in Liverpool some of the young lads from the area where I lived used to put cheap firework rockets in cardboard carpet tubes and fire them horizontally - like a military rocket launcher - now that was dangerous...

Innocent bystanders and accidents are not reasons to ban things, especially with the low rate of injury and death caused by fireworks. I have enjoyed fireworks, setting them off, playing with the bits inside, designing them (chemistry can be SO much fun ) and I do not want to be made into a criminal, or be made to pay through the nose for what I want to do. The world is a dangerous place, banning things like fireworks does not make it safer in any significant way, it just takes the fun out of life. Well, until later....
BCNU - Crescent

Crescent: I am glad you have so much fun with fireworks and that explosives can give you such pleasure - ever thought of joining the army or getting a job in a munitions factory?

On a serious note however, if fireworks are still getting into the hands of children to be misused then surely they should only be allowed at organised displays. If it was your child that became a statistic in the

*low rate of injury and death caused by fireworks*

maybe you would feel differently? Just a thought...

I simply cannot see any argument at all for fireworks being on open sale to the general public. You can have a lot of fun with a gun, but you can't just pop in to your local newsagent and buy one because they're dangerous. Whilst fireworks may not be as dangerous as guns, they can still do a pretty good job of maiming people, and even when they don't they're a damned nuisance.

Every year, from mid-October until mid-November, and then again from mid-December until Jaunuary, it sounds like a war-zone on Saturday nights, and on any night there are sporadic loud bangs any time until about 2 in the morning. Quite apart from the fact that it terrifies the dog, and wakes all the kids in the street, I don't see why I or anybody else should be subject to it.

I also don't like the idea of these things being thrown around - some odious little scumbag just missed me with a banger last year outside the local take-away and seemed to be quite put out when I then offered to stick one where the sun doesn't shine and light it.

I wouldn't mind so much, but most of the time there isn't even anything to look at. The ones at public displays are much, much better than the ones you can buy in any case.

They should only be available for organised public displays. I don't see any difficulty in organising that - we manage to have a system to license the sale of alcohol.

I for one do not want drunken idiots (and drunken idiots can be over 16, or over 18 for that matter) with ready access to pyrotechnics wandering the streets and setting the bloody things off and it astonishes me that anybody thinks it is a defensible state of affairs.

Not many die, but plenty are injured. Here is a link to the official statistics for the UK.

http://www.dti.gov.uk/homesafetynetwork/fw_stats.htm

To: Captain Kebab

Well said!

*applauds Captain Kebab*

I would like to see fireworks taken off the shelves of supermarkets and corner shops and sold only in specialist outlets. I would also like to see a licensing system in place where you have to apply to your local council for permission to set off fireworks in your back garden. It is not only the irresponsible oiks that are dangerous - many dads become little pyromaniacal children around this time and try to "impress" the kids. I hate it on bonfire night - the gardens here are far too small to be safe - last year alone 3 rockets hit my windows in the back. A friend of mine - aged 31 - thinks it is hilarious to order huge fireworks from the web and set them off from the flat roof at the back of his house. I think it is just plain stupid. I will not go out on bonfire night now - even to a public display - because I am worried that I will get hit by a stray firework. Shame really.

A horrifying thought just occured to me. What if the firemen's strike ends up coinciding with 5th November?!