SirHumphreyAppleby:
I disagree. What we have now are potentially far more dangerous than the sky rockets and crackers we had in the past. The solution IMO is to relax the regulations. I know, that sounds absurd, but the majority of calls for a ban are based on two factors; noise and damage.
Over the years we experienced a few product failures (fireworks would shoot through side wall instead of upward) or situations where people did not properly secure multi-shot fireworks to solid ground - the first shot would topple the cartridge, and subsequent shots would be horizontal - usually resulting in flaming balls being shot at people or into buildings.
Rockets were banned because they were considered too dangerous, but, I think these post-ban fireworks are even more dangerous. It is just luck that no one was seriously injured in our case.