I generally don’t like to do “Gun Death” stories for major holidays, but I think given the traditions of Independence day this one needs sharing:
A prominent local chiropractor was killed and three others injured in a fireworks explosion at Comanche High School Thursday morning.
According to Comanche Volunteer Fire Department Lt. Marcus Nettleton, the explosion occurred around 9 a.m. as crew were setting up the tubes that house the fireworks for Friday’s annual fireworks show.
It’s unclear what caused the explosion. One witness said fireworks went off inside a trailer for five minutes or more.
Nettleton said the dead and injured were local community members and had been helping with the fireworks show for more than 20 years. He described the injuries as “serious.” The names of the injured have not been released.
Now fireworks and firearms have some thing in common. Both use gunpowder (tho fireworks tend to use black powder and burning metals, while firearms use smokeless powder and inert metals), and both have military origins. Still in my humble opinion the beauty of fireworks is really all about controlled chaos, while firearms are just an amazing amount of control of what could be a very violent and dangerous action. Also while firearms are essentially good forever if properly cared for, fireworks have a very set shelf life, and are totally consumed upon use, so build quality can differ greatly.
In the end one is VASTLY more dangerous than the other. And by “Vastly” really neither is all that dangerous unless the person using it is irresponsible. Still accidents happen with both, but one can be VASTLY more devastating when things go bad, especially in this case where there was whole truck of the things when stuff went bad.
Be careful out there, and happy Independence Day!
H/T Bob
Point of order:
If I’m not mistaken, it is generally accepted as historical ‘fact’ that gunpowder (as invented by the Chinese) was originally discovered while pursuing a ‘youth potion’, then was used for fireworks, and only subsequent to that was it employed in military applications.
I had never heard of the youth potion, but those first Chinese fireworks were first used as military signals, then crude rockets before they ever thought about stuffing the black stuff in a tube and wedging a rock in front of it.