Ah, it's the 11th again...

Fireworks all day in my neighborhood. It makes me wonder why there are laws against Pennsylvanian people buying fireworks in PA or anywhere else in this country. The laws are only observed by the police when people set off the explosives at a bad time, i.e. not on a national holiday where fireworks are accepted. They're observed by people who sell fireworks all the damn time. However, it's easy to get around this if you have either a friend visiting from out of state with a valid photo ID, go to an out-of state fireworks stand or store that doesn't check your ID (or just asks if you live in PA and leaves it at that when you say "No"), or you bribe the people who sell the fireworks. Honestly I don't know if the last idea works, but I know that if you're bribing someone to get something you can't normally have in your locality, it's not always cost effective. Whatever the case, people are celebrating today with more gusto than when they greeted the anniversary of the very creation of our country.

 

The best bit was when they celebrated the deaths of thousands of mothers, brothers, fathers, sisters, sons, and daughters with some fireworks.

 

Incongruous, yes, but Americans will welcome any excuse to shoot fireworks. Personally, I was hoping to celebrate by greasing a few dune coons, but I was stuck doing maintenance test flights all day.

 

What are people "celebrating" today?
I personally thought it was a tragedy when it happened. It was a senseless loss of life, and the start of an unfortunate war (not that there's such a thing as a fortunate war...).
All of the sane people I know held a moment of silence, at the least. Some used the opportunity to state that 10 years ago today they decided to join the armed forces and pay those bastards a beating.
I think that fireworks should be used to celebrate joyous occasions, like a victory, or independence, or perhaps the birth of a child. Ah, whatever. Patriotism, what can you do?

 

Perhaps not in your realms, but the Seattle Times focused on two things 1) the horrid tragedy that occurred and 2) how 9/11 and our response to it really fucked America over.

 

You're right, people should only focus on the tragedy and not celebrate the memories of their loved ones that passed.

 

Alright, I'll give you that one. It's just alien to me because I don't celebrate the memory of a loved one with fireworks.
I just found out that last year on 9-11, it was the end of Ramadan and Muslims all over the world set off fireworks. However, Ramadan ended 12 days ago this year. I looked into it further and saw that a lot of people on the east coast were literally freaked out, like they thought there were bombs going off overhead because the fireworks were loud and hardly anyone saw them. The people confident they were fireworks just said "Fireworks? On 9-11? That's inappropriate."
There were several festivals all over the coast with fireworks today. Looking back, September was always a month for festivals...even if these people were just celebrating the lives of the people they lost, they were inadvertently trying to bring back the spirit of the month. I'm actually tired of the depressing atmosphere September has gained over the past 10 years. Reflecting on it now, fireworks were a good idea.
Will I personally do it? No. I didn't lose any loved ones on the 11th.

 

Happy 9/11 Everybody!


Also, why not celebrate the loss of your loved ones with fireworks? Al Qaeda did!

 

Zanza's right. I don't think I've ever been to a funeral that didn't have fireworks.

 

We're gonna light up the Sydney Harbour Bridge for mine.

 

Here. This company makes fireworks with dead people inside. Don't know if there's an equivalent country in Australia, though.

 

Man. I love this typo.

Personally, I'm all for fireworks. Now, this has nothing to do with 9/11. I spent the day blackberry picking. But if people want to shoot a few rockets into the area, have wars with roman candles, or do anything else involving the physical tossing of illegal fireworks, I'm totally okay with it.

Shit, I think I'll go buy some bottle rockets tonight and see if I can set the neighbor's house on fire.

 

Oh, wow. I did mean company, by the way. I'm going to leave my post as-is because you already caught my mistake.

 

I don't have any fireworks, but what I do have is an endless supply of bullets and a machine gun to shoot them with. I have made it sort of a personal goal to expend as much ammunition as I possibly can during this tour. Each time we fly, we pass through a test-fire area where we are supposed to shoot 10 to 20 rounds to make sure our guns work. I usually fire a full can, 200 rounds. Today, I reached a mile-stone of sorts; I have honed my reloading skills to the point that I was able to shoot a full can, reload and shoot another in the time it took to get through the test-fire area. 400 rounds in about a minute. I'm so proud.

 

That's pretty damned awesome, Japes. Do you know if there's anyone capable of reloading even faster than that where you are? If you're using the M16A2, I know it can fire at around 800 rounds a minute, but I'm assuming that's with a constant ammo feed.

 

What type of ammunition do you use? Caliber? Special features?

 

With those kind of skills you should be one of those specialists on deadliest warrior. It would sure make some of the people they get on there look like chumps.

 

I might be talking shit here, but considering "a full can" is 200 rounds (I assume "a full can" is one mag/similar) I'm pretty sure it's something heavy in route here.


But to the point of order, as TP said, Specifics please

 

You've got a point. If a full ammo can is only holding 200 rounds, those are big bullets (or small cans). Probably for something big enough that fighting on the ground with it would be difficult without physical support. But, what do I know?

 

What do you fly?