Garrison Wells, Ramblin’ Man

For this year’s Independence Day festivities, Rio Rancho officials weren’t the only ones shooting off fireworks.

Neighborhoods throughout Rio Rancho celebrated, too, not always to everyone’s liking.

That’s not unexpected, said Rio Rancho Police Department spokeswoman Jacquelyn Reedy. The department sees a veritable explosion of fireworks related calls that time of year.

We’re celebrating, don’t you know.

This year, there were 152 fireworks-related complaints, according to records from the Rio Rancho Police Department requested by the Observer.

Some were multiple calls made by the same people. Some were anonymous.

And they came from all areas of the city. Timing of the calls varied, too. Some came at around midnight. Others earlier in the day.

The calls ranged from July 2 through the 6th, with most understandably on the 4th.

In an email, Reedy said that the police department “responds to all calls for service pertaining to fireworks as time and officer availability allows.”

When asked if there were a lot of illegal firework citations, she said that the department “focuses on both education and enforcement.”

We have dogs. You might, too.

They hated it. They howled and barked, and they weren’t celebrating. There were fireworks going off all around us in Northern Meadows, some loud enough to clearly be illegal – loud enough to practically be mortar rounds.

On Facebook, complaints were everywhere. That’s what Facebook is for, though. Complain about everything, often.

But that’s not to say the complaints weren’t legitimate.

Of course they were. Facebook is a bastion of truth.

But I digress.

Fireworks – also known as pyrotechnics, is big business.

Acording to the American Pyrotechnic Association, Consumers spent $2.2 billion in the U.S. on fireworks in 2021. That’s up about $3 million from the year before.

In 2019, we bought a mere $1 billion worth of fireworks. In two years, we doubled what we spent on blowing things up, a frustration born, I’d say, of COVID.

What American spend on fireworks has steadily increased since 2000, according to the data.

It generally increased about two million or so a year until 2020, when sales, er, exploded.

Goes to show you.

Isolate Americans, make them wear masks, tell them they can’t go anywhere; they are going to blow things up.