What part of illegal do you people not understand?

I just took the dog for a walk around my neighborhood this (July 4) evening and noticed that an awful lot of people are violating the state’s fireworks laws. This did not bother me very much. I have long been aware that there are a number of our laws that are widely broken and rarely enforced, such as exceeding the speed limit by up to 10 miles/hour, bringing into the state and setting off illegal fireworks and non-citizens being in the country without valid visas or residency papers. The fact that these laws are widely violated and rarely enforced is an obvious signal to most of us that they are not to be taken as seriously as the laws that the police do enforce.

But I have been noticing in blog comments and letters to the editor that there are a number of people who do not accept this state of affairs. They mostly seem to focus on the widespread violation of our immigration laws but their logic applies equally well to speeding and illegal fireworks. They argue that any sort of illegality is unacceptable. If they feel that way I would guess that all these illegal fireworks going off around them must send these people into a rage. So, on behalf of the tender sensibilities of these people who cannot stand any sort of rampant illegality I ask all of you patriots to cut it out with those illegal fireworks.