Fireworks are banned without permits in most areas of the Cowichan Valley, including Cowichan Tribes lands, but there are still far too many people who set them off anyway, seeming to feel they have some kind of right to do so.
They don't have the right.
We've heard some of the arguments - they've always done it, nobody they know has ever been hurt, their parents remember doing it for a lark when they were kids - but in the end they remain unconvincing.
Unfortunately, there seems to be little enforcement or deterrent, in spite of the fact that not only are you not allowed to set them off, it's also illegal to sell them here.
There are good reasons that these bans have been put into place.
Safety is the biggest. Almost without fail there is a report from somewhere about someone being seriously injured by one of these things.
The inherent danger of throwing around something designed to explode is exacerbated by both the inconsistency in quality of the product, and the lack of good judgement of those using them.
Let's address that first point for a minute. Didn't pay much for your pocketful of fireworks? There's a good reason for that. They're cheaply made, with little regard for who will be using them.
As to the second point, well, deciding to deliberately go out and do something that's illegal isn't the epitome of making good choices.
Then there's the fact that those doing it are often young, running around in the dark, totally unsupervised, and throwing them around pretty indiscriminately without having considered the very real possible consequences. How many of those setting them off have really thought about what can happen when they toss them at, or close to, one another, somebody's pet, or somebody's property?
It's a recipe for disaster. And they think it's a lark.
It's not so funny to the person whose pet runs away in fear, or who finds scorch marks or burn holes on their private property.
It's time that going out around Halloween with fireworks became a lot less socially acceptable. They're a bane of the holiday.