There is no room for sloppiness when messing with fireworks... When you start doing stupid stuff with explosives, awesome happens. Try to catch it on video.

Growing up, there was a story told to all of the kids about fireworks that had us all making cautious decisions about handling them from an early age. The story goes like this...

When my grandfather was a much younger man, one summer, during his Fourth of July celebration, they were gathered around lighting off firecrackers. Back in his day, firecrackers were just that... Firecrackers. Little sticks of flash powder that made an impressive boom. If you can remember the horror stories from the early days before OSHA became a thing, you'll know that life used to be more dangerous. We didn't have an overbearing government looking to protect the galactically stupid, we let the process of natural selection have its pick.

My grandpa was lighting little firecrackers in his hands and throwing them out to burst. We've all done this at some point in our pyromania daze, but there's a key detail to his story. You see, when you bought firecrackers back then, they came packed loosely in a bag. As pickups weren't common then, while lighting firecrackers, he just kept his bag of fun tucked neatly under his arm.

Here's the curious thing about fireworks. Everything produces sparks and flames. If you've ever lit a fuse, you know, that fuse throws ridiculously hot sparks everywhere. Unfortunately for my grandfather, that big ol bag of firecrackers caught a few sparks off a fuse, and the entire thing popped off in his armpit.

Was he hurt? Probably. Grandpa was a mans man, he could be standing there with a burned up nub and he'd probably just walk it off. But that story, especially told at an early age left an impression of safety in all of us grandkids. Still, danger is fun.

It's a huge bummer the City of Lawton doesn't trust you with your own safety as an American in your own driveway... Fireworks of all kinds are illegal inside city limits. It's an ironic twist of American freedom considering Fort Sill and so many of those who fight for freedom lives in this community. If a place like oppressive Denver, CO allows fireworks at home, Lawton should too. This will be just another talking point to make mention of this coming election season. If they're going to spend our road monies on a mall, they can at least give us our freedoms back.

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