CPSC and Updates
Im not trying to bum everybody out but, I see a lot of new members joining the forum and i think it's very important to make sure everyone's aware of this situation.I haven't seen any mention of this for quite some time.
If you are aware,then skip the link and read below.
http://www.fireworksfoundation.org/CPSC-Handel.aspx
IMO if FireFox loses,the entire pyro community(not just hobbiests)Is doomed.Not that fireworks haven't been under attack forever but...
Check this out.
Copied from rec.pyro
This is an open letter to members of the PGI and pyrotechnic hobbyists
everywhere for the purposes of updating you on the Consumer Product
Safety
Commission (CPSC) situation, asking your cooperation in (not) dealing
with
that agency, and soliciting your continued support.
Most or all of you should be aware of the ongoing efforts by the CPSC -
your
government at work, spending your tax dollars - to eliminate your
access to
certain critical chemicals - predominantly oxidizers and metal fuels -
and
other materials necessary to pursue your hobby. They seek to achieve
this
by persecuting - and prosecuting - our suppliers. You should also know
that
the Fireworks Foundation, in conjunction with these suppliers and with
the
assistance of the PGI, has made a stand and is engaged in a vigorous
and
expensive defense of Firefox Enterprises from the CPSC assault on their
business and our hobby.
Recently, we have become aware that a few well-intentioned hobbyists
have,
for various reasons, contacted the CPSC related to this matter. Most
often
these contacts have been made in an earnest and otherwise-admirable
effort
to ensure that their hobbyist activities are fully legal.
We ask that you please do NOT have further contact with the CPSC.
Here's
why, in the simplest possible terms.
The only interest the CPSC has in us is the extermination of our hobby.
They will exploit any contacts you have with them for whatever
information
they can extract from you to support that purpose alone, regardless of
how
innocent or well-intentioned the contact is. Because you are
reasonable,
law abiding, and helpful and assume the same of others, you believe a
dialogue can be mutually helpful. Wrong. The CPSC, smiling like the
Cheshire cat, will engage you in dialogue, pump you for information,
and use
that information to more effectively destroy us. When they have gotten
all
they want from you, you will never hear from him again. Don't do it.
Just
say no.
The CPSC's stated purpose is to eliminate injuries to consumers from
illegal
flash-based explosives (e.g., "M-80's"). We have no doubt that this is
true. However, they apparently believe that pyrotechnic hobbyists are
the
source of this problem. They ignore evidence to the contrary - it
doesn't
suit their preconceived notions (or, perhaps, their real purposes).
They
will be cheerful and seem friendly, and pay lip service to "finding a
cooperative solution to our chemical supply needs," but from bitter
experience we've come to understand that "cooperation" with them means
we
talk, they listen and question, and then they do nothing to help us,
but
instead use whatever they've learned against us in any way they can.
We can only conclude that they simply want to get rid of us.
Almost a year ago, when the Firefox case was just beginning, we, too,
naively thought they would help us find a solution. To that end we and
a
group of pyro community members including Bill Bahr, Frank Kuberry,
Harry
Gilliam, Joe Domanico, and others met at CPSC headquarters with Gib
Mullan,
who is in charge of the office responsible for this issue. Also
present
were members of his staff including Jim Joholske and a phalanx of
lawyers.
We of the pyro hobbyist community came to the meeting ready to help
find a
way for the CPSC to perform their mission to interdict and prosecute
unlawful manufacturers and distributors of "M-80's" while hoping to
reach an
accommodation that would spare our hobby.
To our surprise and dismay, it was made abundantly clear to us by Gib
Mullan, both explicitly and implicitly, that the purpose of the meeting
did
NOT involve any attempt by the CPSC to help us survive but was ENTIRELY
for
their benefit in gaining information about us. Beneath a polite
veneer, the
meeting and some later follow up conversations had the unmistakable
tone of
an adversarial cross examination. Subsequent events have only served
to
confirm that their real interest was limited to better preparing
themselves
to exterminate us. There have been no further contacts by the
participants
in that meeting with the CPSC.
This is why attorneys tell clients NOT to talk to the police. They are
NOT
there to help you. They are there to build a case against you. The
more
you talk to them, the more you jeopardize yourself. We now believe
that the
more we talk to the CPSC, the worse off we are. Their interests are
inimical to ours. We will now talk to the CPSC ONLY through our
attorneys.
Please let our lawyers be the only contact between our community and
the
CPSC.
Despite all this, we do not feel that the CPSC is inherently evil.
Rather,
we feel that they are fundamentally and irredeemably possessed of a
misperception of which all our reasonable efforts have failed to
dissuade
them. They really believe that if they get rid of hobbyist fireworks,
they
will make a significant impact on illicit salute manufacturer and
distribution. They ignore evidence to the contrary- for example the
fact
that our LEGAL hobby consumes - in one year - an amount of dark
aluminum
(about 1,000 pounds in 2004) approximately equal to that involved in
ONE
SINGLE BATFE seizure of an ILLEGAL salute manufacturing and
distribution
operation in the Wisconsin/Illinois area which involved over 100,000
devices
and over 2900 pounds of flash powder. Thus, our hobby uses in one
year,
less aluminum than a significant illicit manufacturer has on hand at
any
given time.
The CPSC cites accidents where hobbyists are injured in pursuit of
their
hobby. None of the cases we are aware of have involved injuries to
anyone
other than the hobbyist and none have involved sale or distribution of
fireworks to the public. The injuries in question are sustained by
adult
hobbyists engaging voluntarily in an activity known to entail some
risk.
Like skydivers or SCUBA divers (hobbies in which the CPSC displays no
detectable interest), they accept these risks and, occasionally, suffer
the
consequences. These cited examples are NOT cases of unsuspecting 10
year
old kids getting hurt by some illegal fireworks sold to them by an
unscrupulous and profiteering bootlegger, but the CPSC seems not to
perceive
the distinction.
We know that the CPSC will read this, but, we have nothing to hide.
Their
preconceived notions notwithstanding, we are NOT the problem and
getting rid
of us will do nothing to address their ostensible concerns (though you
can
bet the breast-beating press release will say otherwise).
If you think all this a bit paranoid, let us offer two further things
in
evidence:
1) Please feel free to contact any of the other participants from the
pyro
community at the aforementioned meeting with the CPSC for a second
opinion.
2) In the very recent past, both the PGI and the Fireworks Foundation
were
formally notified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), within a week
of
each other and by the same IRS agent, that they are to be the subject
of tax
audits. According to the agent, these audits were "referred," not
random,
audits, meaning that the IRS was requested by a third party to audit
the
Foundation and the PGI. By IRS regulation, the agent cannot tell us
who or
what agency referred us for audit, but, in our opinion, it takes very
little
imagination to figure it out.
Yes. That's right. Some "unknown entity" has, by written request, set
the
IRS on us. You see, until we decided to help Firefox, all other CPSC
targets, lacking the resources to defend themselves, obligingly rolled
over
and died. As the only entities with a prayer of mustering adequate
resources to defend our community, the Guild and the Foundation have
now
become the targets. If we can be neutralized, killing off the
remaining
chemical suppliers will be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.
We have no great fear of the audit - we have good attorneys and we
have, we
believe, behaved in a scrupulously legal manner - but the audit will
deplete
our meager resources, both in terms of money and (volunteer) time and
focus,
and thereby constrain our ability to mount a proper defense - which is,
of
course, our adversary's objective.
Understand what is going on here: Our government is spending your tax
dollars to impair our ability to effectively use your contributed
dollars to
defend ourselves against -- our government. All the money in the pot
is
ours, and much of it - the majority of it - is being used by the
government
to either attack us or constrain our ability to defend our community.
Are you angry yet?
Our advice to all members of our community is as follows:
1) Do not have any contact with the CPSC.
2) Refer all contacts to our lawyers through the Board of the PGI, the
Board
of the Fireworks Foundation, or John Steinberg.
3) If you are a target personally, hire a lawyer and do only as the
lawyer
suggests.
4) PLEASE DONATE ALL YOU CAN, IMMEDIATELY, TO THE FIREWORKS FOUNDATION,
either by mail at The Fireworks Foundation, C/o Mike Swisher, 14511
Olinda
Blvd. N., Stillwater, MN 55082, or online via credit card/PayPal at
http://www.fireworksfoundation.org.
Thank you.
Tom Handel
1st VP, PGII
John Steinberg
Trustee, The Fireworks Foundation
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Originally Posted by Pyroman6000
.It was easier to send the foundation 50 bucks.Leave the courtroom battles up to the lawyers.
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