Opinion: Is it time to say goodbye to home fireworks?

All weekend my cat Arya - who I'll admit is a bit of a sook - sat under the table wide-eyed and trembling.

With every bang (which was happening day and night) she would jump, then stare at me like I had betrayed her for doing nothing to stop the scary noises.

When we hopped into bed, she bounded up, squirrelled under the blankets and proceeded to dig her claws into my thigh for half the night.

We go through this every Guy Fawkes.

While I do feel bad for her, I'm not going to say public sale of fireworks should be banned because it scares my cat. She's lived through a few Guy Fawkes' now and it hasn't appeared to have done any lasting damage.

But there are other, more pressing reasons fireworks should no longer be sold.

Let me preface this by saying I have always loved Guy Fawkes.

I grew up in a time when the fireworks you set off in your backyard rivalled those in the public displays - at least in the eyes of my 10-year-old self.

Every year my cousins would come over and we would play with sparklers, waiting for it to get dark enough to start letting off the contents of the two gigantic crates parked in the patio corner.

Our parents always followed the safety rules and for years our Guy Fawkes tradition went off without a hitch.

But one year a big multi-shoot firework toppled over moments before blasting off and was aimed right where we were sitting. Sparks shot at us and we scrambled, but not before a couple of people were stung with embers.

Thankfully nobody was seriously hurt, but it was terrifying and not long after that incident we began to see a crackdown in the type, volume and standard of fireworks you could buy.

Today's fireworks are a shadow of what they used to be, but people still get hurt every year.

My love for the tradition aside, I struggle to see any legitimate argument for the continuation of firework sales.

It's a debate that is had every year, but nothing changes. Perhaps it's time to just bite the bullet and limit fireworks to public displays - I know Arya will be grateful.