Fourth of July

[Raymo]

Ok everyone, who here is going to celebrate by lighting some crazy fireworks! I, personally, will be enjoying some drinks and burgers with the GF and family and I believe I still have a long standing tradition to watch Star Wars (Empire) and yell at the screen everytime someone says something awesome. Then (sometimes) I meet up with some friends and we usually play some video games.
Thats honestly how the days goes for me. So how about everyone else at G3?

[Murgatroyd7]

I hate 4th of July. What it represents is great and all, but everyone uses it as an excuse to get drunk and start shooting up the neighborhood. For the whole week before and after the 4th, all we hear are firecrackers and gunshots until 4 in the morning. Easily the worst holiday ever, right after Cinco de Mayo.

It used to be so much fun when I was a kid, but having to worry about stray bullets kinda kills for me.

[StatiK TactiK]

lol oh you Americans and your guns =P

Obviously we don't celebrate July 4th here but it IS Canada Day here today (basically the same type of holiday and celebration) and if people in the neighborhood started firing guns in the air, you can bet your *** cops would roll up soon after, guns drawn and all.

[Murgatroyd7]

That should be the case here as well because it's illegal, but nobody ever reports it because they either can't tell the difference between gunshots and firecrackers or they just don't care. I've considered calling the police, but I usually have no idea where the shots are coming from. I really don't understand the appeal of firing your gun into the air. What could possibly be fun about it?

[MTDrunk]

If I have people over, I'll be celebrating with some burgers, brats, and beer. And someone will probably bring fireworks. If people drink at my house, they will either have to crash or have a DD. Sometimes I wish I lived inside the city limits because all fireworks and firecrackers that are legal in the county aren't legal there. If I don't have people over, I won't celebrate other than my annual viewing of my favorite musical 1776. The 4th and New Years are two holidays I don't go out on. It's like playing Russian roulette but with drunk drivers. The local radio stations broadcast the locations of all the checkpoints so most people are able to avoid getting caught before being involved in accidents.

[Mike]

heading to the jersey shore tomorrow to spend the 4th haven't been down all summer yet

[Raymo]

hah Canada day sounds pretty sick, and Murg's 4th sounds terrible. Normally my neighborhood wouldnt stand for ANY of that crap, but I just moved so I'm expecting to hear a lot of fire works since my neighbors are all morons pretty much.
The gun fire I don't get honestly. I mean, I enjoy going to a rifle range from time to time, but shooting a gun in the air? Stupid and wasteful to squander the bullets.
@Mike-ah, good luck in Jersey. I've never been, but I assume it gets just as crazy over there as it does in Cali

[Juppy]

We don't ever go anywhere on the 4th, for fear of our house burning down. We live just outside city limits.....inside the city is a "no fireworks" area, so all the city people go just far enough outside city limits that the cops can't say anything and then pop their fireworks on the country roads. Our road is one that gets frequented every year, and sometimes you get the occasional moron that thinks it's a cool idea to shoot a roman candle into the ditch where all the dry grass and weeds are at. Long story short, we sometimes have a fire come blazing down the ditch towards our lawn and house, so we just stay home and keep the garden hose ready as well as the phone to call the fire department, if needed.

[Murgatroyd7]

The gun fire I don't get honestly. I mean, I enjoy going to a rifle range from time to time, but shooting a gun in the air? Stupid and wasteful to squander the bullets.

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. But it's not like these people make sense anyway. These aren't guys that go to the range when they want some shooting practice; they just use each other. Sadly, if I stand out in front of my house and look down the street to the left, I can see the apartment where a guy was shot in the head not too long ago. There's so much freakin' hate. These idiots say they need to be and gangs and carry guns because it's the only way to stay protected, but they're the only ones that people need to be protected from! I need to get my hands on a Death Note. Ha ha.

We don't ever go anywhere on the 4th, for fear of our house burning down. We live just outside city limits.....inside the city is a "no fireworks" area, so all the city people go just far enough outside city limits that the cops can't say anything and then pop their fireworks on the country roads. Our road is one that gets frequented every year, and sometimes you get the occasional moron that thinks it's a cool idea to shoot a roman candle into the ditch where all the dry grass and weeds are at. Long story short, we sometimes have a fire come blazing down the ditch towards our lawn and house, so we just stay home and keep the garden hose ready as well as the phone to call the fire department, if needed.

Where my family lives (the town I moved from prior to marriage), it's all very dead and dry, so fireworks of any kind are strictly prohibited and it was rare for anyone to go against that. Each year, on the weekend before July 4th, there is a 20-minute display at the lake and that's about all you ever see. Down here, certain fireworks are allowed and I think that's fine. The ones that do the little 6-foot showers of colors are fun for kids and they don't really cause much trouble. But people can't stand the thought of using those; no, they all have to fly up into the air, whistle really loud, or make explosions so big that they set off car alarms. I wouldn't even mind those too much if it was confined to a certain time period, but we get two weeks of this going on every night until 3 or 4 AM. They're talking about banning fireworks altogether because people keep using illegal ones. I have to admit that I'm starting to support the idea of arresting anyone who uses anything.

Last year was one of our best years ever with only $19,000 in damages and no deaths that I can recall. Normally, $200,000 is considered a good year, so it's pretty impressive. Of course, I would like to see it get to the point of not needing a list of statistics.

[Raymo]

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. But it's not like these people make sense anyway. These aren't guys that go to the range when they want some shooting practice; they just use each other. Sadly, if I stand out in front of my house and look down the street to the left, I can see the apartment where a guy was shot in the head not too long ago. There's so much freakin' hate. These idiots say they need to be and gangs and carry guns because it's the only way to stay protected, but they're the only ones that people need to be protected from! I need to get my hands on a Death Note. Ha ha.



Where my family lives (the town I moved from prior to marriage), it's all very dead and dry, so fireworks of any kind are strictly prohibited and it was rare for anyone to go against that. Each year, on the weekend before July 4th, there is a 20-minute display at the lake and that's about all you ever see. Down here, certain fireworks are allowed and I think that's fine. The ones that do the little 6-foot showers of colors are fun for kids and they don't really cause much trouble. But people can't stand the thought of using those; no, they all have to fly up into the air, whistle really loud, or make explosions so big that they set off car alarms. I wouldn't even mind those too much if it was confined to a certain time period, but we get two weeks of this going on every night until 3 or 4 AM. They're talking about banning fireworks altogether because people keep using illegal ones. I have to admit that I'm starting to support the idea of arresting anyone who uses anything.

Last year was one of our best years ever with only $19,000 in damages and no deaths that I can recall. Normally, $200,000 is considered a good year, so it's pretty impressive. Of course, I would like to see it get to the point of not needing a list of statistics.

Well while my fourth of july was great (good burgers, watched some twilight zone hung out with the family) my neighborhood is full of idiots. They kept shooting off the loud fireworks until around 1 am and it was setting people's car alarms off. What a bunch of jerk offs.
And as far as property damage goes, where I live now they always have idiots lighting something on fire even though its residential. As long as those morons burn themselves I have no problem at all. But they have set fire to buildings some years. My old city (which is only 5 minutes away from my current house) has a strict "no fireworks" policy. Cops will be at your place in minutes with a $1000 fine.

[Murgatroyd7]

We still have people setting off LOUD fireworks until ungodly hours and it will probably continue for a few days. When it comes to illegal fireworks, the fine starts at $1500. It increases depending on the number of fireworks, as well as their scale. I haven't heard about any deaths this year, but I know that at least two houses caught on fire, one of which burned down. I'm thankful that I at least didn't hear a whole lot of gunfire this year, although a lot of these explosive fireworks sound like shotguns. People might as well be setting off freakin' dynamite. I don't even understand what's so appealing about watching one of these things explode. The legal fireworks at least give you a pretty light show; these just go "boom!" and then it's over. I can't believe people waste so much money on this crap.

Overall, this year was worse than last year (although a lot of arrests were made). Unsurprisingly, most of the deaths over the weekend were caused by the river. Idiot tourists come up here and think that just because the river looks calm, it means they can jump right in without testing the current first. Most don't survive. There were a few rescues, but more than half of these idiots died. Can't say I really sympathize too much. There are signs posted all over the place that tell you not to go into the water because hundreds of people have died over the last 40 years. It got to the point where they only update the signs every several years because it happens so often. One family from out of town (as were all of the victims) is convinced that their relative washed up on the river bank somewhere and doesn't know how to get back to either camp or the nearest town...we all know the guy's dead. People always think this when the bodies aren't found right away. They'll spend a week on the side of the road with "Help us find so-and-so" signs until the body eventually turns up.

[StatiK TactiK]

WTF? Deaths? $200,000 in damages? Houses burning down? That kinda stuff never happens here for Canada day (and we have a ton of fireworks here for that too). Or maybe it does and it's just less publicized lmao. That sounds crazy. I'd hate a holiday where fearing for my safety or my property takes precedence over celebrating (aka getting drunk lol)

[Murgatroyd7]

I don't know what fireworks most folks use up there, but people around here aren't satisfied if their fireworks are any smaller than these:


It doesn't help that most of the illegal fireworks come from Mexico (so you know the quality can't be good) and the majority of people using them are idiots. They light these big-*** things and then just toss them; I imagine at least half of the resulting fires are probably on purpose. I mean, given all of the murders that go on in this town each day, it really wouldn't surprise me.

There's also the fact that this is a small town with a large amount of crime. It's amazing how many gang members, drug dealers, and other criminals live in this place. Bakersfield's population is less than 400,000 and half of it is in the ghetto. Toronto on the other hand has about 2.7 million people, so a lot of incidents like fireworks-related fires might get overlooked. But I do suspect that we probably have stupider and more malicious people living here.

[DeYanKees1]

Oh dear god those are missiles. I did what most college students in their summer breaks would do I went to the beach then drank lol.

[Juppy]

Hey Chris....that pic you posted of that big fireworks thing?....the only time I've seen one that big around here is when they'd have some kind of drawing/raffle to see who wins it. The place we used to buy our fireworks at (way back when we still bought 'em) used to do that every year.....most of the stuff ranged in size from black cats or those tiny little tank things (that never work) up to the larger ones that just shot fireballs up in the air or whatnot. The large ones usually weren't over a foot tall or so. BUT....over in the corner of the building would be the prize for that year's ticket drawing; and it would be something big. I remember one year they had this thing that said it shot a bunch of roman candle-like balls up in the air....something like 4,000 total or so. It was as big around as a small car tire and I remember thinking it just looked like they took a whole bunch of roman candles and glued them all together with one fuse to set the whole shebang off. The sign said the retail value of it was like $100 or so, and I thought "Okay.....why would anyone ever pay THAT much money for a firecracker?!" I mean, what do you get for your money?....."BANG BANG POOF ZIP WHEEEEEEEEEEE!.....*pop*....Okay, there went $100 up in smoke....what's next?"