It’s about that time again — when patriotic Americans from every walk of life celebrate the violent birth of this great nation by blowing shit up. We love it. That’s why we’d like to help make sure you’re aware of your state’s (potentially uncool) laws regarding fireworks. We’ve posted the CPSC’s summary of state regulations inside. Enjoy.
Keep in mind, local ordinances may apply. Don’t end up like this poor guy who accidentally drove over a stretch of road that had been annexed by Houston after legally buying fireworks and got slapped with a $500 to $2,000 fine.
From the CPSC:
The following is a summary of state regulations as of June 1, 2008.
I. STATES THAT ALLOW SOME OR ALL TYPES OF CONSUMER FIREWORKS (formerly known as class C fireworks), APPROVED BY ENFORCING AUTHORITY, OR AS SPECIFIED IN LAW (39 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico):
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Mexico
Nevada
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
(The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, in addition to the above states enforce the federal regulations and applicable state restrictions.)).
II. STATES THAT ALLOW ONLY SPARKLERS AND/OR OTHER NOVELTIES (total of 5 states):
Illinois
Iowa
Maine
Ohio
Vermont
III. STATES THAT ALLOW ONLY NOVELTY FIREWORKS – (total of 1 state):
Arizona
IV. STATES THAT BAN ALL CONSUMER FIREWORKS (including those which are allowed by CPSC regulations) – (total of 5 states):
Delaware
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
Houston’s short fuse [Houston Chronicle]
Fireworks Fact Sheet [CPSC]
(Photo: The Joy Of The Mundane )
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@Black Bellamy: I don’t think so – black powder is federally regulated.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: They like to be called “Progressives” these days. Evidently they gave “liberal” a bad connotation, so they’ve switched titles instead of policies. I actually like this development, as it will eventually return the proper, classical meaning to the term “liberal”.
*sigh* I haven’t been able to light up fireworks for years due to living around US Forests and there would be red flag warnings for fire danger.
Now I could potentially light them up, but my proximity to DC even makes that a bit questionable.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: I just don’t get why they would want to prohibit Americans from shooting fireworks on the 4th of July. Are we not capable of doing it? Do they need to regulate us more? Just because they hate the country doesn’t mean we all do. Some of us are proud of America today, and proud of our history, and want to shoot fireworks to celebrate.
Kansas City has a complete ban on fireworks. Drives me crazy. We’re turning into a cess pool like NY, NJ, and Boston. Afraid to take a shit w/o filling out the B45-C form.
@AtomicPlayboy: Ya, and we’re status quo. Status quo = #1 richest per capita.
[globalrichlist.com]
I laughed at little Rhode Island there in the last category “No fireworks of any kind.” You’d never know it by our neighborhood, where people start setting the damn things off around Memorial Day and continue all summer. (Not just firecrackers, but actual fireworks — rockets etc.) The police couldn’t be bothered to interfere, and I honestly don’t blame them — it would be like playing whack-a-mole.
What about indian reservations?
The irony of having to go to an indian reservation to set off fireworks on the fourth of july is just too good.
Oh, and PS: I grew up with sparklers, also those black-soot “worm” things, and other small novelties. I particularly miss the sparklers. I don’t remember a single kid being hurt by one. They were beautiful on a summer night as we ran through the yards, sparklers in hand, trailing bits of light.
@ElizabethD: Ya but thats old school.
Maybe they will come out with a fireworks video game.
One reason why I miss living in Wyoming: fireworks are legal all year. Nothing was better than the occasional snowball with a black cat in it.
I know that in Alabama it varies from county to county. I know that you can’t fire off fireworks inside of Mobile County city limits but if you drive somewhere outside of the city limits they aren’t gonna get you for that. Cops are notorious here for that.
@BloggyMcBlogBlog:
“Let me have one of those porno magazines, large box of condoms, a bottle of Old Harper, a couple of those panty shields, and some illegal fireworks, and one of those disposable enemas … eh, make it two.”
@Wormfather is Wormfather: I am literally right now watching a clip of Blumenthal on the news talking about “excesive amounts of pyrotechnics” in fireworks being illegal anywhere in the state. So I’m guessing pretty much all we get is the novelty stuff.
Ah yes illegal in MA. Yet at least twice a week I see fireworks go off out of my bedroom window. Now im not in the boonies of central and western MA but right in the heart of Boston and get to see them pretty much ever weekend.
Interesting that the five states with total bans are all among the original 13 states.
Texas has two 2-week sales seasons that end at midnight 7/4 and 12/31.
Meg is not kidding about Houston/Harris County law enforcment’s enthusiastic and aggressive anti-fireworks enforcement. Beware.
i always thought it was bullshit that a town can hire “professional pyrotechnic displays” that bend the law in half & violate the hell out of it, but i can’t even light off a few bottle rockets in my backyard.
& so i just don’t care. i’ll light off whatever the hell i want. that’s what independence is all about.
Fricking Illinois! It’s not like there’s anything else to do in 99% of this godforsaken place (Farm and Prison Land).
This list seems to be a little misleading. I know as a Kentucky resident that fireworks, insofar as ones that launch up into the air and explode, are illegal for personal use. That means we all just cross the I65 bridge over the Ohio River into Indiana to buy from the fireworks depots cleverly operating right across the bridge. Just gotta watch out for highway patrol units who watch the bridge for people going in and coming out in the week before July 4!
The only thing more effed up than Pennsylvania’s liquor laws are its fireworks laws. The border areas have tons of fireworks stores that don’t allow people with a Pa. license to buy fireworks. Live in New York or New Jersey where they’re totally illegal? Sweet! Come buy ‘em in Pa. But you can’t use them here. You can’t take them home either. Best go out to international waters and set them off there.
It’s actually not unusual for New Jersey and even New York City cops to stake out these fireworks places and follow people back home to nab them. Just a warning in case you’re planning to load up a U-Haul with M-80s and take it back to Staten Island.
Half of California is burning from wildfires and they refuse to outlaw fireworks this year. The whole place is a tinderbox. WTF?
Missouri is great in not limiting us on the type of explosive we wish to dangerously blow up like children.
Thanks, Missouri!
NJ’s ban on fireworks isn’t unpatriotic – it’s the complete opposite. It provides us with oppression that we can revolt against!
Seriously, though, I don’t like the ban, mostly because my wife likes obeying laws and setting an example for our daughter. “Do you want to explain to her why it’s OK for you to break the law?” Meh.
Of course if you spend just 15 minutes reading the genius comments on you-tube videos, banning silverware sharper than a spoon seems like it might be a good idea…
cool article… i am from NJ, but was vacationing in VT. We drove half hour away into New Hampshire, bought a crapload of fireworks for $130 dollars, no ID no questions, and left.. later that evening we put on a show on the property in VT.. AWESOME!
HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!
@crabbyman6: The PA law is a bit more restrictive than they make it sound. Sparklers and those little pop guns are allowed, but that’s about it.
That’s what I thought, but then you see road stands selling all manner of blowupables. And they’ve been selling fun little sampler kits of explosives in grocery stores since the beginning of the summer. No one ever knows if this is legal or not.
@Kishi: Wyoming, baby. Year-round fireworks that are illegal in Utah. Just don’t buy them during those three days around the holidays when you can buy them in Utah. Cars from Wyoming are searched during those times.
Celebrate the birth of your nation by blowing up a small part of it!
It’s worth noting that in the State of Wisconsin, you are legally allowed to purchase and possess fireworks, but you are *not* legally allowed to use them.
(This applies to at least Racine County)
Coming from the South, its definitely South Carolina FTW!!!
Only thing prohibited there: Small rockets less than ½” in diameter and 3″ long.
/growing up, would stop at SC border every summer to load up on “good” fireworks
@moore850: In Ohio, you have to sign a form promising to take them out of state within 48 hours (wink-wink-nudge).
@EE: Really? Where in Illinois can you buy fireworks? Because we (people in Illinois) always make a run to Wisconsin for our fireworks.
And even better, Wisconsin dealers are allowed to sell higher class fireworks than are legal, as long as you sign a release. So we buy sky show mortars in Wisconsin and bring them back to Illinois.
growin’ up in NJ, we had free access to sparklers back in the 60′s.
Occasionally someone would go to North Carolina and stock up on 1 1/2″ crackers, they were quite popular on the 4th!
Now even sparklers are banned. Oh well.
Now that I’m in Seattle, people can get anything on nearby Indian Reservations. A few years ago someone set fire to the hillside beside our house and it came within 50 feet of the home.
- excuse me, it’s my turn to fire off the cannon!
Delaware
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
My dog thanks you.
The local children trauma unit thanks you.
Isn’t Houston one of the cities that put in red light cameras, then shortened the yellows so as to ensure that not everyone could make it through or stop?
I had a firecracker go off in my hand once. As long as you don’t have a deathgrip on the thing (just holding it in your fingers) you’ll be fine.
@Jabberkaty: If you aren’t an idiot about it, you aren’t going to blow off anything.
@Corporate-Shill:
Uncle Chuck curses you.
illegal fireworks wouldn’t be fun if they where legal. nothing is more American than breaking it’s laws on its birthday and blowing up a little piece of it at the same time.
I’d say Michigan should be in category II, not I:
CONSUMER FIREWORKS
Specifically Permitted Sparklers containing not more than .0125 lbs (0-2 oz) of pyrotechnic composition, flitter sparklers, cone and cylinder fountains, snakes, and smoke devices.
Specifically Prohibited All other consumer fireworks, or fireworks of like construction.
Nothing like celebrating the fourth like buying some high quality Chinese fireworks!
Alaska should be under the following:
III. STATES THAT ALLOW ONLY NOVELTY FIREWORKS – (total of 1 state):
IL is no surprise. However, that doesn’t stop me from launching a bottle rocket outta my a$$cheeks, thanks to Indiana. Only problem is that IL state troopers park near the border and wait out IL residents who patronize the fireworks stands near the border. Once you cross the state line, they pull you over and confiscate your goodies. I’m sure the troopers have wonderful fireworks parties once they get home.
@Jinx:
When did that change? Because last time I lived there, you could buy just about anything in unincorporated areas. There were times when rockets and such were banned due to fire hazard, though, but I don’t know if that was a permanent thing.
Either this is new, or it’s a local law.
@bullwhip6:
Just have 2 cars.
One car buys the fireworks, the other doesn’t go to the store but waits it out at a mall.
Switch the fireworks & the car that was at the store will get searched when it crosses the state line & nothing will get found.
Also drive back to Chicago on the Skyway or 94 in the morning rush.
I live a block from a Chicago police station & at least 5 houses down the alley from the cop house will shoot off fireworks.
Nobody ever gets arrested.
If you listen to the cops on a scanner, the dispatcher just gives out address after address of reported fireworks, nothing happens.
Of course, the weaselly Cook County Sheriff will have a press conference tomorrow to show seized fireworks & will blow up a mannequin with it.
Always a lot of fun, only encourages the idiots!
@BytheSea: Most of the stuff in the grocery stores are just variations of sparklers. The roadside stands are a different story, they usually all have something under the counter that is definitely illegal. You just have to know how to ask about it. Or, if you know someone out of state just go to a regular store and buy them there.
@bullwhip6: Indiana should do what New Jersey police have done to PA LCB agents snooping – arrest the IL troopers for loitering/prowling.
Don’t go directly back over the border – cruise around and have some coffee at Starbucks…get something at Walmart*…shop for electronics at Circuit City…anything to throw the cops off your trail.
They’re illegal in St. Louis County. So, everyone here goes over to St. Charles County or Jefferson County (either one no more than 30 minutes from pretty much anywhere within STL, so not a terrible drive) where the second you cross the county line, there are a million fireworks stands. It’s a mecca of fireworks. And no cops sit at the county line to pull anyone over….nor do they actually enforce the law in St. Louis.
4th of July got rained out for me last year, so I think I have some left, but if my stash is running low, I’ll be making the pilgrimage to St. Charles County sometime Friday morning
@bks33691: They’ve been talking about changing the MI laws for a few years though because… everyone just goes to Indiana to buy the cool stuff and then they burn shit down or blow something up. Then our fire departments have to deal with it. So really, MI should just sell the fireworks themselves and make money off the taxes.
@moore850: Every time we bought our fireworks at American Fireworks in Hudson OH they gave you the “read it and lie” form, which you signed stating that you would be transporting the fireworks out of state w/in 48 hours. So yes, in Ohio the fireworks are legal to sell but illegal to posses!
BTW, many years later American provided all of the fireworks shows at SeaWorld. One of the better parts of my job there was helping to blow up 8 grand a night in fireworks and 30 grand on the Fourth. Mere hours to get everything set, whereas they’re already setting up the show in our downtown parking lot and I can assure you it won’t be as big as what the deep pockets at Anheuser-Busch were willing to pay for!
@Greasy Thumb Guzik:
Chicago! Cops caring about fireworks! You gotta be kidding me! My brother used to work for a grocery chain in Melrose Park (that shall, for the moment, remain un-named, and no not Dominick’s) and the cops who worked part time there used to:
1. Sell him the fireworks
2. Own the property that they told him to come & shoot them off at
3. Get a kick out of watching us set them off
Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!
@Bladefist:”Kansas City has a complete ban on fireworks. Drives me crazy. We’re turning into a cess pool like NY, NJ, and Boston.”
Well on the bright side, in Kansas City you can be completely irrelevant.