Fireworks. Ban Them. Now.
Yes, it’s the time of year when fireworks become easily accessible to all. The time of year when you get woken up most nights be people detonating fireworks. The time of year when news stories like this one, this one, this one, this one and this one become far too commonplace (those stories were all from the last few days, on just one news website). By far the worst is this horrific attack (with video). Yes, someone set off a large “industrial” 200 shot multi-round firework in a small shop. Which itself had stocks of fireworks for sale. That is nothing less than attempted murder. The youth who threw the firework in could not have known how many people were in the store, nor that the shopkeepers baby was on the premises (the child was later admitted to hospital suffering the effects of smoke inhalation)
Fireworks are explosive devices. They should be controlled in the same way as other explosives - with strict regulations regarding their manufacture, sale and use.
Fireworks should not be available to anyone “over-the-counter” in local stores. No matter what the customers age. They should only be available from regulated, licensed specialists and then only sold to licensed pyrotechnicians for use in organised event displays.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-fireworks at all - In the hands of professionals, fireworks are great, spectacular shows like the one I saw earlier this year in Blackpool show what experienced, competent and professional teams can achieve with pyrotechnics. However they should not be available to the kind of idiots who think it’s fun to light a 200 shot device and deposit it in the middle of a shop, where families are going about their business.
When is the government going to do something about this annual menace by banning the retail sale of these dangerous devices? (sign the petition)
Update: More fireworks stories :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7064400.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/7059446.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7057569.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7057195.stm (particularly nasty act of animal cruelty)
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6 Responses to “Fireworks. Ban Them. Now.”
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In Ireland fireworks have been illegal for decades. As I type this there’s a spectacular display going on right outside my window. This is, I think, the crux of the problem; banning them isn’t going to have the desired effect. What you need to do is make them legally purchasable by anyone over the age of 21 with a license, and at the time of purchase the day and time of planned use should be recorded. The authorities would then be able to check up (randomly) on certain users to ensure they were being used at this time; failure could be a jailable offence.
The biggest problem in the UK is the lack of enforcement of current laws. It’s illegal to set off fireworks after 11pm - but there’s insufficient manpower in the police to actually deter anyone from doing so.
Firstly can I ask you Tom M exactly what you mean by an ‘Industrial’ firework? Are these your words or have you copied other journals descriptions of this firework? I ask because the firework in question is actually a 200 multi-shot barrage or cake where two hundred individual bore tubes are fastened together and thus ignited with one fuse to give a multi shot effect. Its official classification is a category 3 firework with a minimum safety distance of 25 metres, which of course the idiot who set it off had no respect for what so ever. I have never heard of the term ‘Industrial’ firework unless you mean professional, which is category 4 and is not available to the public to buy.
It angers me so much when firstly people get facts wrong and then call for the ‘banning’ of something either because of people that misuse them, (as happens with anything in life I am sorry to say) or people just don’t like them personally for whatever reasons.
I myself am not a professional firer but a responsible adult who purchases retail fireworks from proper specialist Companies that open all year round. I love nothing more than organising safe and enjoyable displays for friends and family in non-built up areas. It gives me (and all the people who watch my displays) enormous pleasure in organising, buying, setting up and the firing of fireworks.
So as a responsible user is it fair to just ban them because you and other like-minded people call for this? I think not, how about working on new measures and solutions to stop un-responsible and underage people buying them – which I’m sure, would also have an impact on them being set off after 11.00PM which you mentioned. They could start perhaps by restricting or putting measures on shops that open for just a few weeks a year i.e. not allowing them to sell cat 3 fireworks and only let fully licensed shops that open all year to continue to sell them. I would even be in favour of enthusiasts like myself having to obtain some kind of license to purchase them; so at least myself and thousands of other responsible users of fireworks would not be discriminated against.
Please let’s not just ‘ban things’ in life without thinking of tackling a situation and looking for a proper solution first.
Michael, you make some good points - there is clearly a “mid ground” of people who are not either “professional” pyrotechnicians, nor are anti-social yobs - and I don’t want to ban people from enjoying fireworks in a responsible manner. Unfortunately as you rightly say, people do abuse things like this - to the extreme detriment of other peoples personal safety and enjoyment.
I certainly don’t want to ban the safe, responsible enjoyment of fireworks - I myself enjoy a good firework display (I recently attended the “international fireworks championships” in Blackpool for example) - and will likely be watching a display being put on by a local school later tonight.
In your case, as an enthusiast pyrotechnician organising displays for friends and family, I think that your suggestions of a second level of licensing - below that for “professional” use (i.e. large-scale organised displays at council parks/concerts/themeparks and the like) - for responsible adults who’ve (maybe) attended some kind of basic safety course to obtain that license is a possible way forward.
What needs to be banned is the retail sale of fireworks from “regular” stores - limit the sale only to specialst retailers so that it’s much harder for teenagers and others to get hold of and use for crime, animal cruelty and terrorising others. The situation this country is currently in, with people cowering in their homes for fear of local yobs pushing lit fireworks through their letterboxes must be stopped though.
Are the global warming prophets of doom in hibernation from the start of October to the end of December because with fireworks going off every night for 3 months solid there MUST be a lot of co2
being produced and because of all the V.A.T from the sale of fireworks going to the treasury there won’t be a ban at any time in the near future.
When it suits the powers that be they’ll cripple us with “green taxes” but when they get as much revenue from the sale of fireworks as they do they’ll conveniently look the other way.
Fireworks have always been dangerous but leathal in the wrong hands. Yes the idea of an age limit and some sort of permet is good but which authority has the time or people avilable to enforce this. On new years eve I was with family and friends, in a family home having our own fun. When to our horror lit a display fire work was dropped into the room and changed the lives of over forty people. The Firework was in a living room rebounding off the walls and injurying each person in it’s way. Many people have been burned and are still attending hospital for dressing twenty days later and will still need further treatment. Each person is dealing with their own issues. Someones idea of fun has affected many lives. On that eving the pararmedics could have save other people with serious health problems. A very large team of people from the emergency services helped us. Evacuating somones family home to defuse the rest of the firework that had not gone of even after two explosions. Please stop the sale of fireworks. More free displays for people by permit holders or councils in public safe areas. Do it in display.