So, let's see, the guy who sold the illegal firecrackers (whether they should be illegal is subject to debate) is from the suburbs; the kid who started the fire was from Ohio. So, where the hell was the adult who was supposed to be watching the kid??????


A dollar's worth of firecrackers touched off a conflagration on the West Side : City & Region : The Buffalo News

From the article:

A man spent Tuesday afternoon selling fireworks out of his red sport utility vehicle on Buffalo’s West Side.

He sold four firecrackers for 25 cents each, and they ended up in the hands of a 6-year-old boy, who ignited one inside a bedroom. It started a raging fire that damaged four houses and left six families homeless.

But within eight hours, fire marshals were able to track down the alleged fireworks merchant, Leon Sapp Jr., 49, of Midland Avenue, Town of Tonawanda. He became their 59th fire-related arrest this year and the second one related to fireworks in the last week.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Where I live most fireworks are illegal, but they are sold anyway. The cops do not care. Sometimes they go to some of the richer neighborhoods and watch people set off their illegal fireworks. I am glad they do not care, it is fun to watch these fireworks and snakes/sparklers just do not quite cut it. Stupid law that luckily goes unenforced,

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May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill

Why would the merchant be arrested? Was it illegal to sell fireworks WHERE he sold them? Seems to me like a parenting problem.

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"Bring me that horizon".

I have no objection to fireworks (people have been setting them off around here for about the last week and at any major local even like the Hispanic Health Fair or Buffalo Bisons baseball games there are often fireworks) and I don't think they should be illegal. But, damn it (I'm not talking to you here), I expect six year-olds to be supervised by responsible adults!

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Assuming the fireworks were sold in Pennsylvania (just a couple of hours south of here), the sale itself was legal.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

There ought to be a law, dammit!

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

Firecrackers are not legal in PA.
If they were I would be purchasing them here.

__________________
May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill

Er... there is a lot of firework related sht that is legal there that isn't in Ohio. I know because everrrrrrybody buys there.

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"Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
-Joseph Welch

Well as I said it is not hard to get illegal fireworks here. Many people do go out of state to get stuff though, not sure what state I just buy illegal stuff out of trailers.

__________________
May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill

Firecrackers cannot be sold in PA to Pennsylvania residents

OTOH, using one of the most interesting legal loopholes ever devised, a fireworks store in PA can stock, and sell to non-residents, all sorts of fireworks which are legally prohibited in PA. All that is required is an out-of-state ID, and you can buy not only firecrackers but some pretty impressive rockets too

My home state of NJ has been griping about this for years, since there are quite a few fireworks stores located right at the NJ/PA border that obviously cater to NJ residents - where fireworks are also illegal !

It has become enough of a sore spot that the NJ State Police now makes a practice of staking out those PA fireworks stores for a week or so prior to the 4th of July, and noting when buyers at those stores get into cars with NJ license plates. When the buyers cross the bridge back into Jersey, there is a Trooper waiting for them on the Jersey side who stops them and searches the car, with rather predictable results......

New Jersey confiscates 4 tons of Pennsylvania-bought fireworks

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I yam what I yam, except when I'm a sweet potato