Supposedly you can tell the difference between fireworks and gunshots by the echo; fireworks will be more of an echoey boom because they are up in the air.
When I grew up in a neighborhood on a downhill slide, I learned the difference was a firework will be a single pop with a very long (hour+) delay until the next one (fireworks were illegal in the city I lived in) but if you hear more than one pop its probably a gun.
Supposedly you can tell the difference between fireworks and gunshots by the echo; fireworks will be more of an echoey boom because they are up in the air.
Not all, quite a lot of fireworks stay on the ground. The big mortars usually go in the air though like you said, usually.
When I grew up in a neighborhood on a downhill slide, I learned the difference was a firework will be a single pop with a very long (hour+) delay until the next one (fireworks were illegal in the city I lived in) but if you hear more than one pop its probably a gun.