"With the expansion of consumer fireworks sales in Florida, there should not be a critter left alive there."

Independence Day means fireworks season — and the beginning of the institutionalized charade behind their sale in Florida. In the Sunshine State, one does not buy a bottle rocket for recreation; one buys it to scare birds away from farms and fisheries. That’s right: Explosives for pest control. Technically speaking, consumer fireworks are illegal in Florida. But nearly 60 years ago, state lawmakers passed an exception — now the only one of its kind in the United States — for fireworks purchases by farms and fish hatcheries.

Read more at the Tampa Tribune.