A few years ago, we had fireworks on New Year's Eve. It was only that one time as long as we've lived here.

I guess Thump won't have any:

 

Oklahoma bans New Year fireworks as blazes continue to devastate parts of the state and neighboring Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry urged communities to take extra care in areas as dry as a "tinderbox." Tens of thousands of acres have been scorched and the fires are blamed for five deaths

We have no fireworks.

Oh, sorry, I don't think they are legal until the 4th of July.

We have no fireworks.

I think the ghetto just shoots off its shotguns here in brewtown.

I should clarify my post . . . we were not allowed personal fireworks, but there was a public display a few years ago. Our volunteer firemen sell fireworks around the 4th to raise money for the public show. They said they had a little extra money that year so used it up on New Year's eve.

ah yes.....from the local paper- starting early this year on the topic!

Hold the gunfire
It's dangerous to start off the New Year with a bang, former shooter says

Jeffrey Boler was 7 years old when his father first let him fire a gun into the air as the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve.

Boler has continued the tradition of firing shots in the air virtually every New Year's Eve since then.

Now 35, he says: "Firing a firearm on New Year's was just like getting a Christmas present. It just went with New Year's."

Indeed, firing gunshots into the air to ring in the year has become a dangerous ritual in some communities across the United States.

Boler followed his father's example and introduced the tradition to his own son when the boy was 11.

It's something he says he now regrets. The son is incarcerated, and his father says he was known to carry guns.

And as he looks back on his life, Boler - a convicted felon - wonders whether his own criminal history can at least partially be attributed to the thrill he got that long-ago New Year's Eve.

Boler has a warning: Firing guns into the air produces an addicting rush. And doing it around young people might inspire them to mimic the behavior.

"Don't do it, because that exhilaration that you get from firing a firearm - man, there's nothing like it," Boler says.

Though the message comes from a man who has repeatedly run afoul of the law, law enforcement officials and firearms experts agree it's an important one.

The National Rifle Association warns against the tradition, and Emanuel Kapelsohn, a nationally recognized firearms and ballistics expert at The Peregrine Corp. in Bowers, Pa., says people have been killed by bullets that were fired outside earshot.

"Even though some consider this a tradition, it is extremely dangerous and a violation of the law," Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said in a statement. He went on to say: "In densely populated urban areas, this behavior is not only illegal, but it's reckless. There is no way of predicting where the bullet will land. Criminal charges for this type of offense range from Endangering Safety by Use of a Dangerous Weapon to Reckless Homicide in the event of a death, with penalties ranging from nine months to 25 years in prison."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bullets fired into the air can return to the ground at speeds greater than 200 feet per second, which the agency describes as "a sufficient force to penetrate the human skull and cause serious injury or death."

Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney John Chisholm, head of the gun unit for the county prosecutor's office, recalls no cases in Milwaukee where people have been killed by bullets falling from the sky.

But it's happened elsewhere.

In the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, for example, about two people die and about 25 more are injured each year from celebratory gunfire on New Year's Eve, the CDC says.

Indications are that gearing up to fire guns into the air to ring in the New Year is a common practice in Milwaukee.

"I know we sell quite a bit of ammo at that time," says Victor Williams, a salesman at Badger Outdoors Inc., a gun store at 2339 S. 43rd St.

Chisholm says the tradition is particularly problematic on New Year's Eve because of the combination of firing guns and drinking.

"It's just not a healthy thing," Chisholm said.

Boler has seen that combination firsthand. He said his father, who had been drinking, shot his mother on New Year's Eve just one year after the man first taught Boler to shoot a gun.

Today, Boler works in a store on W. North Ave. that sells T-shirts reflecting America's gun obsession.

The T-shirts bear iconic images of slain rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, who glorified guns in their lyrics, and actor Al Pacino wielding a machine gun in "Scarface" - a 1983 film that is widely popular in the hip-hop culture.

One shirt shows a black man with his right arm extended and a gun in his hand. "Don't watch me," the shirt warns, adding that there are deadly consequences for being a snitch.

Boler says he does not condone the message the shirts send. But his advice for Saturday night is straightforward:

"If you have kids and live in a rough neighborhood, keep them as low as possible," he says. "Celebrate New Year's Eve in the basement."