Opinion: Sharon Griffiths is baffled at how gun-obsessed America can get worked up about fireworks...

Sometimes, Americans are just unfathomable.

Guns, yes. Fireworks? Ooh no.

It's quite acceptable for someone to amass an arsenal of semi-automatic assault weapons, no questions asked, but fireworks are a different matter.

Some states ban them outright – with six months in jail for possession. So don't even think of smuggling in a Catherine Wheel. Most have very strict controls on when and where they can be bought, often in pop-up shops away from densely-populated areas.

Other states ban any fireworks that leave the ground. No holding your breath while the rocket soars skyward. And Roman candles are definitely dodgy.

Virtually all states have at least licences and limits and strict controls on the buying of fireworks.

Yet guns, as we sadly know, are easy to buy.

When we did a Texas house-swap years ago, we got used to signs at supermarket entrances saying 'No handguns in store,' and parked pick-ups with a heap of shotguns and rifles in the back.

Back at the ranch there was a tiny pearl-handled gun in my bedside drawer. 'To make you feel safe, honey,' – and actually having the totally opposite effect. And above both front and back doors hung ready-loaded shotguns to be grabbed instantly in case of rattlesnakes, intruders or maybe just people we didn't like.

I'd grown up with guns, but safely empty and locked away in a cabinet. Walking in and out of the house with a loaded gun above my head made me feel distinctly uncomfortable.

The USA has given us some of the raunchiest films and novels, yet they are also curiously prudish - a publisher friend couldn't sell a toddler's book in the USA because it featured Mummy and Daddy in – shock, horror – their pyjamas.

As for drink… in many states you can't drink till you're 21. A friend was once at a political gathering in Washington and thought the wine looked like blackcurrant juice. Then he tasted it – it really was blackcurrant juice…

Americans are much more likely to go to church than we are and in many ways are more openly God-fearing. We once came across a small settlement in Texas which had half a dozen houses, a chapel and a gunshop – and a pop-up firework shop permitted for just two weeks a year.

Guns are part of the American way of life. But sparklers? Ooh no, much too dangerous.