Older, but no wiser

Call me a kill-joy if you like, but the sooner the sale of fireworks to the general public is banned, the better. I fail to see why I should have to endure endless window-rattling World-War-Three explosions for the mindless amusement of some brain-dead idiots. The attraction of the prettier fireworks I can just about understand (although I could very happily live without them), but just what is the point of making the loudest bang you can, again and again and again and again and again? The mentality of a particularly nasty schoolboy, the kind who pulls the legs off crane flys just for fun, let loose in the body of an adult with too much money to burn.

And noise nuisance aside, just what is the rationale of selling explosives over the counter to every Tom, Dick and Harry? Every year, dozens, probably hundreds of kids, I don't know the statistics, end up in hospital, some maimed for life. One simple step would prevent all of that.

Sorry, rant (almost) over. I detest fireworks. If the bangs set my nerves on edge, heaven only knows what they do to the nerves of all the animals subjected to this barrage of noise.