"On the birthday of our country, a day that celebrates freedom, I sure am glad to live in a place that takes away my freedoms." - John Walker Flynt, July 4, 2021
I get that that's a strength of our federal system (individual communities/states can set their own regulations and if you don't like 'em you can move elsewhere), but the irony is off the charts.
Furthermore, a quick search reveals he's also wrong, shockingly enough. While fireworks can leave behind various pollutants, greener options have been developed in more recent years that
lower the particulates released. There's also a fair amount of trash left behind, but it's primarily biodegradable stuff anyway. Considering most people only see fireworks once or twice out of the year, however, I'd say that the environmental impact is minor at best, and you should only really avoid fireworks if you have asthma or something like that.
Also, there are in fact fireworks standards, developed by the aptly-named
American Fireworks Standards Laboratory. Whether all fireworks are manufactured to these standards is, of course, debatable, since most are made in China, land of nonexistent standards. Sounds to me like that's an argument to move manufacturing back to the USA, right, John? Nothing more patriotic than that.
Finally, props to the freedom-loving individuals giving Massachusetts the middle finger and blowing shit up the American way. God bless you.