Seriously? WTF?

I don't know about using fireworks, but as far as the ability to buy/sell them, it varies by state (with additional restrictions within city limits).  In Missouri (or Kentucky... I don't know which side of the border the shop is on), there's a massive warehouse-like place that sells fireworks year-round.  In Arkansas, you're only allowed to sell them for a couple of weeks before, and up to a week after, the 4th of July and December 31st.

My family lived near a reservation so the rules were pretty lax and the fireworks were always more... awesome.

There are some time limits on buying fireworks here:
"
Buying fireworks
You can only buy fireworks (including sparklers) from registered sellers for private use on these dates:

15 October to 10 November
26 to 31 December
3 days before Diwali and Chinese New Year
At other times you can only buy fireworks from licensed shops."

People must have held on to them from last year.  The 1am fireworks started near here the first week of September.

I'm very afraid of fire and I hate that anyone here can just set them off wherever they like.  At our old flat the whole building used to shake, although now we live in the city center and they're not going off right here (they're going off in a housing estate outside the city wall within earshot).

People must have held on to them from last year.  The 1am fireworks started near here the first week of September.

This is almost more scary - the fact that people have held on to fireworks for months.

Not everyone is going to store them in safe conditions and it's too easy for kids (or stupid people) to get into them.

SIL stored hers above the fridge at FIL's house when there's an unattached brick garage set away from the house that would probably be better... maybe not ideal, but at least further away from people. But she doesn't live here, so.... ya' know... don't need to worry about it so much. At least they're not at her house.

We carried on (I don't know why) and lit two Roman candles (the ones that shoot up about a metre continuously like an upside down waterfall) with no issues.

We lit fireworks in the backgrden of our friends house in Bristol and we had one similar to roman candles but not as much of a bang that the person didn't secure directly and they shot out and my memory of this is one shooting towards us and one of our friends pushing me and another girl (unintentionally) forward while he was running away. Everybody was fine (by the way) in this scenario, but it's become a running joke that this guy is not who you want to be with in an "end of the world" scenario as he will gladly sacrifice the women and children for his own safety. LOL

Seriously though.....I'm just sitting here thinking "....what?! WHY?!" at the whole story! That is mental! Glad everybody is okay! It always blows my mind that they let the average joe buy properrrrr fireworks in any shop really.

All right, I've got one:
We went on a family Road trip to a town on the south coast that I can't name for legal reasons (you'll see why later on).  We parked in a big multistory car park and went out to be tourists. 

We come back at about 8 pm and find the car park shut and signs telling us we would have to wait until the next day to get our car back!  That was a pretty horrible prospect with two kids that need to go to school and two adults that need to go to work.  Even worse, there was an exit with the occasional car leaving since part of the car park was for the residents of the building.  They had special cards.  There was no good reason for the car park to shut that early except I guess the owners couldn't be bothered to support the ticket machine. 

Anyway, we convinced one of the residents to let us follow him out, and try to sneak two cars out while the barrier was open.  Instead, the barrier came down on my car and shattered into a thousand pieces of plastic!  The kids had eyes like saucers while I burned rubber to get out of there.  We made up some ridiculous story for the kids about how mommy and daddy didn't mean to be naughty.....

Thankfully, I never heard anything from the car park..,

I can't even say I'm "WTF"-ing over this...just seriously seriously laughing hahaha

Am I wrong in remembering than in the US there are more restrictions on when you can light fireworks?

Think it's state by state. In MA, it's totally illegal regardless of time of year.

We lit fireworks in the backgrden of our friends house in Bristol and we had one similar to roman candles but not as much of a bang that the person didn't secure directly and they shot out and my memory of this is one shooting towards us and one of our friends pushing me and another girl (unintentionally) forward while he was running away. Everybody was fine (by the way) in this scenario, but it's become a running joke that this guy is not who you want to be with in an "end of the world" scenario as he will gladly sacrifice the women and children for his own safety. LOL

I'm not proud to say I ran inside without DH. Both times. I think he was standing next to me, but I just wanted to get inside. At least I didn't push him into danger.

I can't remember for sure, but I think for the last firework (where they actually fired toward us), we were standing in front of the window that's now got the burn mark on it.

Probably would have been better to turn around, cover my face and just accept whatever hit me. It didn't last long and was over by the time we were inside. At least then I might have gotten a battle scar and I'd really have something to complain about.

This is almost more scary - the fact that people have held on to fireworks for months.

Not everyone is going to store them in safe conditions and it's too easy for kids (or stupid people) to get into them.

Yeah, it is scary.  I've never heard of anything happening around here with it but obviously there's always a chance.

This is almost more scary - the fact that people have held on to fireworks for months.

Not everyone is going to store them in safe conditions and it's too easy for kids (or stupid people) to get into them.

Yeah, it is scary.  I've never heard of anything happening around here with it but obviously there's always a chance.

This wasn't residential, but...
Indonesia fireworks factory explosions kill at least 47 people

Also, this is scary:
Man throws 70 lit fireworks into Liverpool pizza takeaway

SIL stored hers above the fridge at FIL's house when there's an unattached brick garage set away from the house that would probably be better... maybe not ideal, but at least further away from people. But she doesn't live here, so.... ya' know... don't need to worry about it so much. At least they're not at her house.

SIL is here and I showed her the burn mark on the window. She was surprised and said she didn't realize one hit the window. I told her it wasn't there the day before, but it was there the day after the fireworks, so it's almost definitely from that.

She went on to say that she doesn't know how they (DH and FIL, I guess) did fireworks before and this was the first time she'd 'gotten in' on buying fireworks. Maybe they'd have to do them at hers, she said, since they've got a bigger garden. Um.... ya' think?

Side rant: She seems to organise stuff at FIL's. She's got a nice, new house, a bigger garden and wouldn't have to transport two kids if get togethers that she wanted to organise were at her's. But then she have to tidy, buy snacks, drinks, and clean up afterwards.

Back on topic, I texted DH and he said they used to do fireworks... about 20 years ago at the old house and maybe once or twice at this house.

Am I wrong in remembering than in the US there are more restrictions on when you can light fireworks?

Every state has different laws about what types of fireworks are legal for normal people. The fireworks they sell here, the small rockets, aren't available in most states. There aren't laws that I know of about when you can set fireworks off specifically, but there are noise ordinances (quiet after 10pm), fire bans and whether the fireworks you have are legal... and all of those things vary by state. I know CO, MN and WY the best.

Fireworks are pretty much only sold commercially around the 4th, I can't say I've ever seen them sold any other time. If we had them at any other time of the year we bought them in July and saved them.

until the cops showed up

I ran a quick statistical analysis:

Seventy-two percent of your childhood stories have the phrase "until the cops showed up" in them.

I ran a quick statistical analysis:

Seventy-two percent of your childhood stories have the phrase "until the cops showed up" in them.

If a story has the phrase 'until the cops showed up', it's probably a story worth telling.

TF, did they also get a financial "gift" to help buy the house?

I ran a quick statistical analysis:

Seventy-two percent of your childhood stories have the phrase "until the cops showed up" in them.

Childhood stories?  This happened when I was in my 40's!  It was kind of funny because we set off all the fireworks and were actually cleaning up all the bits of leftover paper and trash when the cops showed up.  They were like "Excuse me sir, we've received reports of teenagers setting off fireworks in this field.  Have you seen anything?". Of course, I'm holding a big grocery bag full of fireworks.

If a story has the phrase 'until the cops showed up', it's probably a story worth telling.

Well, sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...

Well, sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...

But they would have been happy to have the cops turn up!

I made DH watch Gilligan's Island recently. He was entertained until he realised all the episodes were basically the same and sooooo predictable.