To hate the UK for allowing fireworks to be sold in shops?

[MummyOfHnS]

Sitting in my house right now and all I can hear are fireworks being set off all around me. Scares the living daylights out of me, and of course my kids are sleeping!!

I love going to organised events so it's not the actual fireworks that do it you see, it's the potentially very irresponsible hands they could be in!

Why are they even allowed to be sold??? AIBU!?

I know someone whose child almost lost an eye at a home firework display, too - it was touch and go for ages.
I toyed with making DS wear lab glasses - protective glasses - during our display the year after.

Serenity it is not just the explosion that hurts the animals and even a feeble firework could be very painful if it was tied to you when it blew up.

Lots of campsites ban those lanterns that float off into the sky because they terrify neighbouring cattle and horses.

We have livestock, so we move what we can and lock up the chickens in their housing and put the dogs in and we alert the nearest farmer (2 miles away) that we will be doing a display should he want to move any of his livestock.

A licence would be a good idea, but it would be a nightmare trying to provide the manpower to knock on everyones' doors to check their licences on November 5th!

I have no problem with organised displays, or responsible people having a party in their own garden. Not happy about kids letting them off in the street, putting them through letterboxes (happened on Halloween night to some of our neighbours) or throwing them at people (happened to DP last year). And there should be a special place in hell for those who throw them at/tie them to animals.

Whether this justifies banning them from being sold in shops - I don't know. It would be a shame to punish those who don't do these things because of an irresponsible minority. Maybe licensing is the way to do it.

HitTheRoadJack (your life sounds lovely, BTW!) - I meant a licence to buy them, so the point at which it was checked was point of sale. I'm sure some people would find a way to get round it (in the same way that not every gun in the UK is owned by someone with a gun licence) but it would at least put a barrier in the way of people who plan to have some huge display in their tiny town garden with no consideration for where the bits will come down/set them off at 1am/tie them to dogs .

Oh yes, I misunderstood, that would make more sense!

I'd go to the organised displays but they're always crowded with unsavoury people, they cost too much to get in, and they don't set the fireworks off until 8.30pm which is too late for my ds (18 mo)...plus we can see them from our house so it's technically stealing free.

This is another bonfire night where I'm pregnant so I'll be lurking around the kitchen eating no doubt

Some people are irresponsible little shits
Some people are miserable kill joys
Lots of people are responsible and realistic.