As the season approaches, I have some questions for you all.

My friends and I have been debating the various laws of fireworks. I was wondering if any of you have good sites that can tell us what the laws are.

Someone I know found this link, but what I don't understand is this: the map on that site says that Pennsylvania is more restrictive than tight-assed Virginia where I live. This doesn't make sense to me, since I know people who drive from here to the Pennsylvania border to buy bottle rockets and such, which are prohibited in Virginia. So what is the deal??

I think you need to find a more specific source of local laws. The Texas page in that link is very general. For example, Austin sits in Travis and Williamson counties. In the Travis county portion of Austin, all Class C fireworks are illegal - possesion, sale, etc, but in the Williamson county part (my hood) it's anything goes.
So I'd go straight to the horse's mouth and check with local law enfocement. And with drought conditions in many areas, fireworks usually permitted may be currently banned because of conditions.

Places by me on the PA/NJ/NY border sell some good stuff around the Fourth. The rest of the year you can only get small things like bottle rockets, sparklers, jumping jacks, and fire crackers.

I have never bought firworks during the holiday (only in the off-season). This is just what my friends that go get the good stuff tell me.

sell some good stuff around the Fourth

F/X: light goes on

If I'd thought a bit about the vague feeling I was getting that "the season" was still quite a way away, I'd have realised that in the US fireworks aren't so associated with November 5th...

Peter

What's strange is that bottle rockets, in my state, are the "good stuff." I think we aren't allowed to have anything that involves projectiles. Basically, if it isn't made by crappy, overpriced "TNT", then it is illegal here. The company has a monopoly on the crummy fireworks market in Virginia.

Dave: I suppose it may be a regional law, so that might be a good suggestion. We certainly have not had a dry season around here (first 3 sunny days in a row in a couple months). I did think that the site was far too generalized, not very recent, and I still think it's pretty inaccurate.

Rob, aren't all fireworks illegal in NY?

Rob, aren't all fireworks illegal in NY?

They are, but you can go to Chinatown in NYC and buy anything.

As the season approaches

November the fifth already? How time flies!

Yeah, but our fireworks holiday celebrates the independence of our country, not some violent quashing of a failed revolutionary by his persecutor.

BTW, why is it that Guy deserves a penny? I've never gotten that one.

I don't think that it goes any deeper, or has more significance than that you are paying an amount as an appreciation of the handywork that has gone into the making of a guy. More for a good one, less for a half-hearted one. I'm prepared to be challenged.

Ah. I was not aware that it related to the effigy, or even that an effigy had to be present.

So let me get this right some fireworks are illegal in some states but you can buy a cheap copy of an AK47 in most places, and you have to smuggle toilets in from canada

This world gets stranger every day

If I'd thought a bit about the vague feeling I was getting that "the season" was still quite a way away, I'd have realised that in the US fireworks aren't so associated with November 5th...

It's going to be interesting being in another country on the 4th. I wonder if there are going to be enough Americans at the Amersfoort meet to justify a few sparklers or something?

I think we have 4 or 5 USians. I'll bring some mortars on the plane with me.

Greetings!

They would probably need to be purchased locally. Anyone flying from the US would probably be locked up as a terrorist for bringing potential explosives or pyrotechnics on an airplane!

Edit: Wow. I am getting slow...

They would probably need to be purchased locally.

That's what I meant.

Okay, after much discussion with other people, visits to various consumer sites, and a look at the CPSC's statements on the subject, one thing is clear:

Law is dumb.

In Pennsylvania, it is legal to sell fireworks such as bottle rockets and firecrackers. However, the citizens of PA are not allowed to set these off.

Meanwhile, Virginians are allowed to set off only lower-grade fireworks that are made by that TNT company, and that's all we're allowed to sell.

It just seems so stupid.