LIKE thousands of others, I’ll be heading down to the city’s organised fireworks display at Glasgow Green tonight and will no doubt enjoy the colour that light up the sky, the sights, sounds and smells of Guy Fawkes night.

Guy Fawkes “night” is what this ritual is supposed to be, a one-off chance for people to come together and make some noise in an organised, safe manner.

The reality for many is far less harmless, however, as fireworks and bangers in reckless young hands from Halloween till Christmas continues to create havoc, misery and danger.

Call me a killjoy if you must, but it’s time to stop enabling this bad behaviour once and for all by banning the general sale of fireworks. Indeed, I find it impossible to fathom why these dangerous weapons weren’t withdrawn from sale years ago.

It has been long known and accepted that teenagers and fireworks simply don’t mix, yet we are still failing to ensure they don’t come into contact with one another.

Since the very concept of the teenager was invented (and probably well before) naughty boys have run amok with fireworks - particularly in more deprived communities – letting them off in residential streets and behind garages, sometimes putting them through letterboxes, lighting fires, spreading fear and panic among the elderly and vulnerable.

The ramifications of such hooliganism can be serious for the perpetrators as well as the victims, of course, since - unsurprisingly - teenage boys are also the group most likely to be injured by fireworks. According to the Child Accident Prevention Trust around 550 children a year are taken to A&E in the four weeks around bonfire night, the vast majority being boys aged 12 to 15. The wee bams making life miserable for decent folk should face consequences; but surely no one would wish upon any young person the serious, life-changing injuries that result when a firework goes off in your face.

Naughty teenagers shouldn’t be getting their hands on fireworks at all, clearly, since current legislation - which is reserved to Westminster - bans anyone under the age of 18 from buying them. As with alcohol, cigarettes and other controlled items, however, older siblings and friends can easily be persuaded to do the buying. Availability and temptation is everywhere: pop-up firework shops with acres of relatively cheap stock and supermarkets selling boxes of rockets in the seasonal aisle next to Halloween costumes and advent calendar.

Even well-meaning fireworks use can be dangerous, as our emergency services continue to point out to no avail. According to Scottish Fire and Rescue, 350 pre-school children, some as young as one, have been treated in hospital for fireworks injuries over the last five years. The scars – both mental and physical - of such burns last a lifetime for children and parents.

The stress and pain caused to animals, meanwhile, is impossible to quantify, as anyone who has watched helplessly as their beloved dog or cat shakes with fear, hides, refuses to eat or runs away, can attest. According to vets and animal welfare organisations injury rates spike at this time of year as both companion and domestic animals try to escape the noise, sometimes getting lost, injured or even killed in the process.

As pointed out by the Scottish SPCA, which is in favour of a sales ban, current regulations allowing fireworks to be let off at anytime, anywhere, for weeks on end, makes it impossible for pet owners and farmers to make alternative arrangement for animals.

How can we call ourselves an animal-loving country when we fail to address such cruelty?

Year in, year out we have this debate and nothing changes; communities remain blighted, children get burned, animals are tormented.

A recent poll in our sister paper The Evening Times showed 75 per cent of readers in favour of ban on the sale of fireworks, while almost 280,000 have signed a petition calling on MPs to take action.

It’s high time they did. But it would also be easy for others to take the initiative: local authorities could stop handing out licences to pop-up fireworks shops and supermarkets could choose not to sell them.

I realise that as well as accusing me of being a bore, others will highlight the creep of the nanny state, arguing that responsible use of fireworks is fun, bringing communities, families and friends together in a tradition that has lasted for 400 years.

To be clear, I’m not calling for a total ban on fireworks; I’m saying they should only be sold to those licenced to run a proper display – let’s face it, garden shows usually turn out to be a damp squib anyway - and that these should only take place on pre-agreed dates and times.

When it’s clear something causes far more harm than good on a number of fronts, when the cons massively outnumber the pros, we should stop it happening.

How does the right of a few to buy fireworks for a party trump the right of many not to be burned, terrorised by neds, or - for animals - scared to death? The truth is, it doesn’t.