fortunately this opinion is becoming more and more popular and widespread.
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2025
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Unpopular Opinion
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Fireworks should be something only done in public spaces for public festivals and stuff. Or perhaps on privatly owned rural isolated land.
It’s ridiculous people can just do noise pollution in the middle of cities. My mother has a neurological disease that can be worsened by acute noise. It always takes her weeks to recover after fireworks, even with earplugs and noise cancelling headphones.
The actual pollution of the fireworks is a much bigger issue than the noise pollution. They create a lot of litter.
I don't mind them when people don't set them off in the middle of the night. My cat is absolutely terrified and twice a year it breaks my heart to see her cowering in fear under my duvet. Therefore I would 100% welcome a ban. They also kill birds and mangle idiots' hands. Though it's probably deserved but it's putting undue pressure on health services.
Therefore I would 100% welcome a ban. They also kill birds and mangle idiots’ hands.
Even though National Geographic agrees with part of what you're saying, banning all cats many would consider extreme. Its also not common that people know that domestic cats are the #1 killer of birds in Canada and the USA.
Isn't the whole thing about cats and birds basically people fantasizing over feefees?
Like, All populations of animals reach a stable point that's somewhat independent of the casual predation
And populations of animals always maximize according to resource available
Ah the ole lemmy switcheroo
It's an older meme, sir, but it checks out
Hold my preferred instance, I'm going in!
Ooooh oh OHHHH you little sh..... Thanks for the giggle though. I'll have you know my delicate cupcake princess is not a murderer.
Although I am the idiot and my hands are about 98% scar tissue
lives in an area where annual fireworks are the norm
buys an animal that is scared of fireworks
animal is frightened by the fireworks
complains
lives in an area where annual fireworks are the norm
buys an animal that is scared of fireworks
animal is frightened by the fireworks
complains
I hate fireworks too. Only obnoxious people seem to enjoy them and then leave a horrible mess behind to blow in the wind.
Only obnoxious depressed boring people find the bad in everything even the fun exciting & beautiful
Id rather be a depressed boring person who doesnt add more trash to these mountains of trash in our environment than blow up things like a simple monkey.
Legitimately great post, this is fairly unpopular.
I love fireworks. Some of my favorite memories are driving down the road to the fireworks stands that are only open a few times a year and watching people go nuts. I’m from southern Arizona originally where they had pretty stringent bans on them, so living in a different area of the country I finally get to experience them.
The other thing is that you know exactly when the fireworks are coming literally years in advance. There’s no excuse for not being prepared. And the “nobody wants to see it” reeks of conservatives talking about pride parades. Suck it up.
Here are some statistics to suck up:
- Fireworks started an estimated 31,302 fires in 2022, including 3,504 structure fires, 887 vehicle fires, 26,492 outside fires, and 418 unclassified fires. These fires caused an estimated six civilian deaths, 44 civilian injuries and $109M in direct property damage. (Note: Total may not equal sum because of rounding error.)
- In 2022, U.S hospital emergency rooms treated an estimated 10,200 people for fireworks related injuries; Over half of those injuries were to the extremities (29% hands and fingers, 19% legs, 5% arms) and 35% were to the eyes or other parts of the head.
- Children younger than 15 years of age accounted for 28% of the estimated 2022 injuries. These injury estimates were obtained or derived from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s 2022 Fireworks Annual Report
As far as knowing “exactly when the fireworks are coming”, I hear mortars exploding for a solid two weeks in June and July, another two weeks around New Year’s Eve, and throughout the year at various events and during random neighborhood parties. There’s no way to predict the concussions, and millions of people have PTSD.
In addition, the 4th of July is the deadliest day for pets and wildlife.
https://www.nfpa.org/education-and-research/home-fire-safety/fireworks
Here are some statistics to suck up
I don’t think you understand what “suck it up” means. I have no problem with those stats. 6 people died related to fireworks over a whole year in a country of nearly 350m people? I can’t think of anything that’s comparable. Something like 30 people a year die from lightning in the US.
As for the 4th being the deadliest day for pets, as pet owners, it’s our responsibility to take care of our pets. You know when 4th of July is. You know when new years is. That’s on the pet owners.
There’s no way to predict? You have zero insight into when this is happening in spite of telling me exactly when it’s happening?
It’s fine that you’re not a fan. We can’t ban everything that has a little bit of risk and some homebody doesn’t like. There’d be literally nothing left to do.
There’s no way to predict? You have zero insight into when this is happening in spite of telling me exactly when it’s happening?
Do you live somewhere where fireworks are only set off on specific days? I had asshole launching fireworks in NYC all the time
Someone launched fireworks a week ago in our neighbourhood. Why? A birthday? Who knows. It wasn't any holiday nor a weekend. How exactly does one plan for that? And it wasn't a single bear bang, it went on for 10-15mins. Nor was it that unusual. People seem to have fireworks displays at random throughout the year - any month, any day of the week. Some are even too early for it to be dark enough out to see them well so they are just a bunch of noise. I don't mind the scripted displays on Halloween night, NYE, and July 1st but we don't need all the amateur in between ones.
Exactly, there are tons of people whojust set fireworks off at different times. This isn't something you can plan for.
I live in DFW, in Texas. They’re pretty big on fireworks here. I live about a mile from the city limits of my suburb. Once you’re in the county people are able to set them off all they want. I also have two dogs. When I hear people whining about this, it really makes me chuckle.
4th of July is on the 4th of July every year. You have about 3 months from right now to figure it out. Go get ear plugs, medicine from your vet, a weighted blanket, or whatever right now.
I don’t tend to get very many random fireworks, or I don’t notice them. I am able to hear the local gun ranges though when the wind is blowing the right direction. It’s just not a big deal, regardless. It’s just noise.
It wasn’t just noise to my buddy Christian who did two tours in Iraq. He slept outside the last liquor store I managed because while he could live in his sister’s house his PTSD almost caused him to harm a neighbor’s kid when they set off an M-80.
You think it’s just noise because to you it is. To the guy with PTSD it’s not noise it puts them back into the war.
Only 6 people died in a country with 350 million people and you think it's fine? How does 0 people die of this sound?
Try applying that standard to literally anything. How many people die a year cooking? Choking on food? Sleeping?
Utter crap for wildlife too
I miss when fireworks were illegal here (well, for civilians, there were still planned shows occasionally). They were made legal and people went nuts and my poor cat was plastered to me the entire time, just shaking.
Unless your military were the only people allowed to use fireworks it was still civilians setting them off
I fucking hate them. I have ptsd and it fucks me up and scares my dog
Fireworks are just old and tired. They're the "shooting guns in the air" of the 1900s.
Forgot I was on lemmy for a sec and thought this was about the band Fireworks. I was ready to throw hands.
When I grew up I used to love fireworks at new years here in the Netherlands. However, now that I'm older and more importantly, no longer live in the same neighborhood, I've grown a big dislike of them.
A big part of this is the vandalism and carelessness that people have. I literally have to move my car elsewhere to prevent it from potentially getting set on fire by some of our neighbors, who get super drunk and then set off fireworks and don't take care of the leftovers, which often catch fire. They also moved fireworks to a patch of shrubs and trees before and if it wasn't for me calling the cops and the weather being somewhat wet they could've set a whole area on fire. It's absolutely ridiculous. Fortunately, there seems to be more and more support for a ban here. The only problem is that it'll be very hard to uphold it after such a long tradition of having fireworks. They already banned some of the heavier stuff before and it never worked, people still had it. Hopefully it'll be different this time.
...I read "firefox" in the title and was very confused
Most places will have loud thunderstorms at least a few times a year. They scare pets, trigger PTSD, and can cause a hell of a lot more damage than fireworks. We also only know about them a few days in advance, and have to deal with additional problems like rain and high winds. But we don't get mad at the thunderstorms, and most of us aren't filled with hatred and dread while we wait them out, they are just something that happens.
So considering mother nature will out-do fireworks multiple times a year without any sort of schedule, I really don't see the issue with people using fireworks to celebrate two times a year on dates and times that everyone should know well in advance.
Do they have to happen? No, but enough people want them to happen that you should maybe just learn to put up with it. That's part of living in a society.
Oh you sweet summer child, where people only light off fireworks twice a year at expected times.
Motherfuckers set em off at 3am multiple times a month around here, and it’s not just like one problematic house or something
And what kinda shithole is this? We're redneck as fuck, and on the bleeding edge of town. I hear nothing but the occasional gun pop from the woods, and you can barely hear that if you're outside and paying attention.
I always thought it was a major fuck you to veterans that the big state funded fireworks display where I live is launched like 10 feet from the veterans hospital where they have people living there and being treated for PTSD.
Also I worked second shift so driving home through low visibility "fog" a few hours after everyone stops shooting them off feels eerie when you live in a city that doesn't get fog. That's probably not good for breathing, but I don't really know about just kind of being anecdotal