Should fireworks be banned for sale to the public for private use and restricted to licensed public events?

[annabel85]

Fireworks for licensed public events only on specific days/weeks of the year - YANBU

Allow adults to buy fireworks for personal use within the current laws YABU

I think it's long since time to ban them because it gets worse and worse every year and goes on all winter. I'd add the caveat that this year you could allow an exception ON BONFIRE NIGHT ONLY due to the ban of the public events this year due to the virus.

This is more about in the future. Away from the anomaly of Covid restrictions, there is no need for the public to set them off. It's kids getting hold of them and causing mischief with bangers and rockets for weeks on end. Or bored people with nothing better to do because the pubs are shut.

Fireworks are essentially for kids to enjoy, it's like trick or treating. But trick or treating is one night, you don't get people banging on your door for months on end. Kids and even adults are firing them at police and ambulances, so the common sense argument has been lost.

Not to mention all of the traumatised pets out there and PTSD sufferers. I thought we were a nation of animal lovers. Why is this cruelty to animals (because that's what it is) allowed to continue unabated?

Time to end animal cruelty and introduce a blanket ban on fireworks, outside of licensed public events over specific days in the calendar such as new years eve and bonfire night.

There is no need for our animals to be terrified all winter in a civilised society. It's barbaric.

I'm all for fireworks on 5th November (or the following weekend) and New Year's Eve.

I hate them going off from end of October through to mid January!

Less is really more when it comes to fireworks! If everyone lets them off together, there will be a lovely big display rather than a flash & bang here and there!

Oh Banjo, what an unfortunate and unpleasant posting style you have. I think you're right to leave it if you can't debate without calling people stupid, it's just not necessary.

I live in a rural area and we regularly have livestock disfigured, killed or chased by off-lead dogs but I'm not asking for dogs to be banned.

Our pet rabbit - not to mention countless birds over the years - was killed by a neighbour's cat but I'm not calling for a ban on cats either.

The majority of people buying fireworks for personal use, use them safely and considerately. Existing laws exist to deal with dangerous, improper use. Calling for an outright ban is heavy-handed and unnecessary imo, but I can see that others disagree and can cope with that without calling them stupid.

If you choose to live in a suburban area, with neighbours close by, there are a great many things one just has to 'put up with' IME, if being conducted legally.

The noise doesn't bother me personally (although I fully understand it must be horrible for certain animals/people), it's more the fact that anyone can buy fireworks at present and they are dangerous.

They're dangerous if you don't use them properly through ignorance and they're dangerous if you choose to use them maliciously. We don't let anyone just rock up and buy a gun without a licence, so why do we give a free pass for fireworks?

I'd feel more comfortable if you had to pass a basic common sense assessment to buy fireworks and all purchases were registered and traceable. I mean, I'd also support an outright ban, because I just don't see the point, but if we must keep them in this country, I think they should all be regulated, not just the extra loud ones that are only available for professional displays.

@rawlikesushi

"Those who say back garden displays are fine and should not be banned - how would you feel if one of your fireworks set fire to a neighbour's house? Would you feel bad? Would you be at all bothered? Would you offer to pay for rhe damage? Or would tell them they are spoilsports and killjoys and that their house was only on fire for one night?"

Has that happened somewhere? Could you link please?

It has. The PP I was replying to said it happened in her village, and the below was posted on another thread.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-54837040

Also in previous years
www.london-fire.gov.uk/incidents/2016/october/stray-firework-causes-house-fire-in-perivale/
And
www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/stray-firework-causes-blaze-damages-2181015

It can and does happen and I didn't make it up.

And these
www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/elderly-couples-home-set-fire-729767

www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/hornchurch-house-fire-caused-by-stray-firework-1-5765302

www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/couple-neighbour-forced-move-out-3506854

Someone was letting them off close to me last night around midnight. In thick fog. Talk about a waste of money

I would like restrictions on when they can be used.

I don't want 4 hours of them like last night.
I don't want a random unpredictable show.

Happy they are the week of Bonfire night between 6 and 8 perhaps.
Diwalli same
New year's Eve 11.30 to 12.30 perhaps.
Any other religious events they are key for?
Times I can predict and cater for. But otherwise no.

People still setting them off this evening. Open the pubs Boris. Too many idiots about with nothing better to do than set off bangers for the sake of it.

12th November, and two very loud ones went off about 6.30 (one of the loud enough to make me jump), and just now heard about 6 or 7 as if someone was letting a few off in a garden.

I see none of those people who support back garden displays has answered my question about how they would feel if one of their fireworks caused a fire in a neighbour's house.

Someone nearby is letting off some massively loud fireworks here, they honestly sound like explosions. I have actually just screamed out loud at the last one, it was so incredibly loud and unexpected. I think I can see the reflection of the them in the building opposite's windows, but I don't know where they are actually being let off so don't know how close they are which is panicking me quite a lot.

It's 20th November, what the fuck are they in aid of tonight? I have heard some quieter /more distant ones on a few nights in the past week. How much longer?