The Fourth of July is almost upon us, and there are safety concerns.

There are rumblings from ISIS that they are trying to instigate their minions and the mindless “lone wolves” they influence to do bad things to Americans on Independence Day.  Ratchet your alertness level up one notch at least, and be ready to protect yourself, and yours, and those around you.

In commentary on another blog entry here, one of our readers asked about safety tips on fireworks.  If it’s being professionally done in your community, my advice is to stand well back away from the damn launchers.  A rearward perspective will probably give you a better set of “oohs” and “aahs” when they burst in the sky anyway.  But it will also keep you and your kids more out of range of anything that could go wrong.  The worst such debacle I know of occurred when a Chinese sky torpedo, which proved to have been defective, exploded in its launch tube in Michigan. Death and dismemberment resulted.

Be really, REALLY careful about fireworks at home.  I’ve trained multiple one-armed people in self-defense shooting, who needed that special attention because in their younger days they were careless with home-made fireworks and assorted other incendiary/explosive devices.  We can all learn from their suffering.

With all that said, I’ll be making noise on the Fourth one way or the other.  I’m in the process of writing a pre-trial report in a murder case, where I’ll be speaking as an expert witness called by the defense for a young woman who saved her life with a gun when a man attacked her with deadly force.  That, obviously, takes precedence over fun.  If the report is done as soon as I hope it will be, this weekend I’ll be shooting an IDPA match with good friends.  If it isn’t, I’ll take some time off to get out on my own home range and do some trigger pulling, to commemorate the armed citizens of 18th Century America who preserved my right to do so.

For many years now, I’ve been in my beloved home country to celebrate the Fourth.  In my younger days, with kids to support, I couldn’t teach classes on holidays so July 4 usually found me in another nation earning money for my wife and children.  Most often – before their handgun ban of 1996, which must have made the longbowmen of Agincourt spin in their graves – that was in one or another part of Great Britain.  When I spent the Fourth in the British Empire, I would flush a teabag down a toilet in commemoration of the Boston Tea Party…and my British brothers and sisters understood.

Have a great Independence Day.  Stay safe!

22 COMMENTS

  1. Don’t forget that backyard pools are a source of holiday tradgedy every year. Especially for the little ones. Careful of other drivers and any time folks are drinking. Take the time, like project appleseed, to pass on our nations history to the next generation. God Bless America !

  3. Finally, and excuse to get rid of those bags of tea my wife collects! What a super idea! I’m thinking 9pm on Independence Day Eve, the bags will be at low ready. Everyone be safe and happy this Fourth.

  4. I think trumpeting Isis terrorist fears here just moves the government’s authoritarian agenda forward. That said, our best defense would be to have every lawful CCW citizen walking around prepared.

  5. When I was going through my divorce some 20 years ago, I was talking to my lawyer at the end of June and asked him when he thought I should vacate the house. He said July 4. I asked why that day. He said its your “Independence Day”.

    As a kid I had so many mishaps with commercial fireworks that it would take a book to tell it all. Other than the pain, some of them were hilarious. It seems that the teenage years are a race to gain enough maturity and common sense before nature takes you out of the gene pool.

    Everyone have a safe Fourth.

  6. ISIS aka Incredibly Sadistic Islamic Savages, has not only attracted deviants and murderers, but has now even recruited sharks into their ranks who are attacking Americans on the east coast. These new members have plenty of sharp teeth and don’t need bombs or guns to inflict serious injuries, so stay out of the ocean and check for big dorsal fins before getting in the bathtub.

  7. I recall going to a fireworks display many years ago. The bleachers weren’t well placed to view the spectacle, so I led a group of kids down onto the field to get a better view (BTW, I wasn’t alone in this-the launching site was a parking lot beyond the end zone and separated by a tree line.). About half way through the show, an errant rocket streaked across the field between us and the bleachers. We rather speedily left the field-and the show.

    Moral of the story, even if others are doing something, it might not be the best idea. I’ve watched subsequent fireworks display from at least a half mile.

  9. As always, reminders to heed caution are required.

    But this July 4th I hardly feel like celebrating. The Republic is dead, the spirit of America is killed. The nation lives but it is not the America I know.

    I sure would love to attend Camp Perry in a couple of days.

  11. Richard: Patriots just need to work together to hold the Republic’s enemies’ feet to the fire. The battle may never be fully over, but nothing is ever as powerful as the truth. Cutting through the smoke and mirrors of dishonest politicians, government officials, and talking heads is easy enough, and bringing the truth to light will win in the end. The Spirit of America is a quiet giant of great resourcefulness that will overcome any effort to destabilize our country. Our foes carry with them the seeds of their own destruction.

    Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

  12. I think trumpeting Isis terrorist fears here just moves the government’s authoritarian agenda forward.

    OTOH I believe we should pay close attention to federal warnings about possible terrorist attacks. They are the professionals, and obviously know more than we do.

    After all, look how many recent attempts have been planned and supported by the FBI. 😉

    I’ll once again celebrate the Fourth by reading the Declaration of Independence at our community patriotic sing-along.
    http://mostgraveconcern.com/quotes/indep.shtml

  14. @ TW: Boys are removed from the Darwin equation from the ages of 10 or so until their early twenties, because *we* at that time are literally too stupid to survive otherwise. Sadly, some skew the curve so greatly that they manage to remove themselves from the gene pool anyway. And as we all know, there are many who are kept removed from that equation for whatever reason through their entire lives…

    A friend’s family owned a commercial fireworks company. They had shirts that said on the back “Fireworks Technician. If you see me running…”

    Happy Independence Day to all here, and a thank you to all those who have served in uniform, regardless of which service it might have been.

  15. Flushing a tea bag… What a great idea. When the kids were growing up the only fireworks we shot off at home were sparklers and a Charleville repro musket from Navy Arms. We’d shoot 14 “blanks”, 13 of them for each of the colonies and the 14th for the whole country. Each of my kids got several turns at pulling the trigger and watching the “fireworks”.

    Happy Birthday to all you Americans out there! God bless our country and keep and preserve her!

  16. We are streaming the miniseries JOHN ADAMS today on our Roku player–Amazon channel. If you haven’t seen it, you are in for a treat. I believe it was originally shown on HBO or the history channel. Superbly done.

  17. You should not be any more vigilant on the 4th of July than you are the rest of the year. Col. Jeff Cooper advised that one should live his life in, “Condition orange.” That meant all day, every day.

    Think back, have you ever been in a situation where up until the moment it all went bad, everything seemed normal? It always hits you out of the blue if you haven’t trained yourself to be ready for it. Not long ago my wife and I had parked our car in the hotel parking lot and were walking up to the front door. We were approached by a young man, clearly not a street or homeless person who asked us if we knew where any gas stations were.
    Odd, because there was one literally next door. Immediately I knew something was not right, having had this same experience a few times before. They always approach asking an innocent question and it eventually leads to asking for a handout.

    But you never know.

    The young man had one hand in his front pocket (I was not armed despite having a CCW permit, mistake). I stepped in front of my wife and ordered (in that command voice so many of you are familiar with) him to remove his hand from his pocket. I focused on his hand and if it had come out with his fingers curled holding something instead of a flat palm against his leg, I would have stepped inside his reach and dropped him right in his tracks.

    Navy SEALs, DELTA force, and other advanced operators joke that they are aware of everyone they meet, and have a plan on how to kill them if it becomes necessary. A bit extreme but it illustrates the point.

    I was stupid that night and caught unprepared, and NOT in Condition Orange.
    Lesson learned.

    Enjoy your 4th but remember, Condition Orange. All day, every day.

  18. Great call on fireworks safety.

    Nine people injured while watching fireworks display in Colorado last night when rockets went into crowd.

  21. There is about as much real theological connection between ISIS, ISIL IS terrorists as there was is between modern day Christians and the Spanish Inquisition, what they do in the name of a religion has been condemned by all right thinking Muslims in the US and Europe. However if some nut with a gun decides to go mad on a beach in the USA at you have a fighting chance of putting him/her away. As much as it pains me to say it – I am not an advocate of guns, but circumstances are forcing me to change my mind – if there had been a couple of people with permission to carry pistols in Tunisia some people I knew would still be alive today. But even so I am not prepared to confuse a radicalised nut with my many Muslim friends, several of whom would happily have pulled the trigger on the Tunisian gunman!

  22. Great article. In these volatile times we live it, any situation can arise at any moment. We are incredibly glad that this 4th weekend went uninterrupted. If any of you are in the Gainesville Fl. area, my company Six Tactical runs an active shooter training class to prepare everyday citizens for potential terror threats such as the ones posed by ISIS. http://www.sixtactical.com.

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