It’s good to see that crime is under such control in New Jersey that the police can expend so much energy making sure no one can have any fun on Independence Day:
Yet it’s illegal in New Jersey to use, possess or transport fireworks, including firecrackers, Roman candles, M80s, cherry bombs and even sparklers. New Jersey is among nine states that bans all consumer fireworks.
“It was a lot about enforcement, but it really was mostly about educating the people,” Hengemuhl said of the state police effort. “We wanted New Jerseyans to know it’s illegal and it’s dangerous.”
We have to put you in jail. It’s for your own good, you see.  Look, it’s one thing to ban fireworks in a dry climate, when there is a legitimate public welfare concern, it’s another thing to protect people from themselves. Pennsylvania bans many types of fireworks, but as far back as I can remember, fireworks laws in Pennsylvania have never been enforced by police on Fourth of July unless someone complained. New Jersey authorities are now talking about fireworks as though it were cocaine.
It’s high time for the citizens of New Jersey to take back what the politicians have taken from them: their basic freedom.  If people want to do something dangerous, that’s not anyone’s business other than theirs.
I was just in VA for the Fourth, and every year the fireworks stands just baffle me. I’m from NJ, and it’s just WEIRD to think of people setting off their own fireworks, esp in the quantites that I know some people do (like my friend out in WA). There’s always a few to be heard around the Fourth, but to me, you go watch the fireworks that the town puts on, you don’t set them off yourself. It’s just…automatic.
And I guess that’s sorta scary to outsiders, how easily we accept it….Hmm….
It’s pretty much the same way in Pennsylvania, except that you always know someone with a stash of illegal fireworks. As a kid, I knew kids who’s dad had stashes, that you could buy some M80s or other firecrackers off of. None of us ever blew off any appendages, but you’d always hear of one or two kids doing it every year in the papers. I suspect the politicians could never be expected to resist such a juicy “for the children” moment, even know we all knew perfectly well that one mishap and you could lose a finger. We were careful.
Hmm, I seem to remember hearing small fireworks going off in NJ at different times of the year. Clearly, not everyone obeys the law. Must be those damn straw fireworks buyers.
The only fireworks kit I remember buying sure as hell wasn’t in New Jersey.
I grew up in VA, moved to NJ for school (and to meet and marry Allura, yay). I have participated in my own little fireworks show in the cul-de-sac outside a friend’s house. It’s like any other potentially hazardous endeavour. Read the warning on the tin and follow the safety rules. They’re pretty simple (much as firearms safety is pretty simple) and fairly straighforward.