I live in Missouri, whose fireworks laws are (or were, see below) rather complicated, but basically amount to “anything goes.”
Buying Them
All along various interstate highways throughout the Show-Me State are brick-and-mortar (heh) fireworks shops. Therein you can get everything from harmless little poppers on up to nuclear warheads. Used to be, unless it was x days before the 4th of July, Missouri residents couldn’t by them, where as out-of-state residents could buy all they want - and I got carded more than once. Nowadays I never get carded; I don’t know if the law has changed or if the stores I patronize have all just stopped giving a damn.
I’m sure a Missouri Doper with some law knowledge will be along to sort things out.
Actually Launching Them
This will of course vary by jurisdiction. But in the little mining town in the middle of nowhere where I live, officially you can’t launch them in town. Unofficially, the cops will look the other way provided a) it’s either reasonably close to the 4th of July or it’s New Year’s Eve; and b) you’re not being an asshole about it.
I don’t know what the laws are around here. We are so close to 4 other states that you can get them in the summer and winter (near New Year’s Eve). Fireworks are set off occasionally near those holidays, but nothing like places we have lived before.
My dad was a Special Forces demolitions expert and so personal fireworks were not part of my upbringing. My folks cringed when friends we were visiting gave us kids sparklers. We don’t buy or use fireworks, and we rarely go out of our way to watch them on July 4 unless we are spending the evening with friends. We’ve been working retail for so long, one or the other of us has to work anyway.
Orygun has some laws I’m sure, being a timber state and not wanting to burn down. Last year’s huge fire was started with a sparkler, I believe. Mostly it appears that you can buy almost anything and set it off almost anywhere, but if you start a fire you will get a bill. Our neighbors put on a huge annual show. They make a block party out of it. I guess public drinking with the fireworks is allowed too. As long as no one asks me to hold their beer, it’s all good.
Around here, it’s legal for anyone to buy them, and they’re sold in both existing stores and temporary popup stores that appear some time before July 4. But it’s illegal to set them off anywhere in the state, so you have to pretend that you’re going to take them to some neighboring state. Or, scratch that “neighboring”: I don’t think it’s legal in any of the states which border Ohio, either.
In practice, the Cleveland police can’t be bothered to enforce the fireworks laws, at least around the Fourth, but the suburban cops will. I don’t know what the situation is in rural areas.
In the Chicago area, anyone who wants them just hops the border into Indiana and buys them. IL state law prohibits anything more awe inspiring than a sparkler or snap-cap. You can drive down I-80 this time of year and every other billboard is for a fireworks vendor in Indiana.
As for launching them, it’s illegal but no one does anything to stop it. Which I wouldn’t care about if it was just the 3rd-5th but you always have that one dumbshit who needs to launch bottle rockets and light off M-80s until mid August.
Massachusetts would outlaw combustion if they could. Absolutely no sale or use of fireworks, including sparklers and bang snaps. But I’ve never the usage laws enforced - around July 4th, everyone drives up to New Hampshire, loads up on fireworks, takes them home & sets them off, and the cops don’t care.
When I lived in Springfield, every year around this time the Springfield Police Department would remind the town that launching fireworks in Illinois was illegal, and they (the SPD) would enforce that. They weren’t kidding, either - those guys were on you like stink on shit.
• Someone 18 or older must be present when anyone younger than 18 is using or possessing fireworks.
• Fireworks can only be used on the user’s property, the property of someone who granted permission for fireworks to be discharged or a place designated by the Indiana State Fire Marshal.
• Fireworks may only be discharged from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. any day except on Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day and New Year’s Eve. On those holidays, discharge times are 9 a.m. to midnight.
Like the OP, I’m also in Missouri, but in Warren County about 50 miles West of St. Louis city.
In the county pretty much anything goes. There are 2 permenant sales location adjacent to I-70.
Two of the cities in the county have rules about when you can use them, basically on the 4th. I’m out in the county and we launch mortor shells any old time. Black powder cannons too. I also shoot on my property.
Only “safe” fireworks are allowed in Arizona. Sparklers, snakes, pinwheels, ground spinners, etc. No aerial fireworks. Nothing that explodes. No bottle rockets, Roman candles, or firecrackers. You can buy the legal fireworks anywhere like Safeway or Wal-Mart. There are even roadside stands that pop up like weeds just before the Fourth of July. Some cities and counties may temporarily ban setting them off if the wildfire danger is too high, though.
Arkansas. You can buy some really dangerous shit. Most incorporated towns have restrictions on where you can launch them, but cops usually wait to enforce the law until it goes on too late, or actually ignites someone’s roof.
I was just in Missouri passing through and wanted to pick up some fireworks from home. The fireworks place had a clear label that said ILLEGAL TO SELL TO MISSOURI RESIDENTS EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN PERIODS but I had no trouble buying with my out of state ID.
Ahh I remember when I first moved up here to Northern VA how the DC store Dixie Liquor used to sell fireworks right over the bridge. Then when the cars with VA tags tried to turn around and drive back over the bridge to VA the cops would stop them and give them a ticket and take the fireworks.
Japan, no age restrictions on purchase. Different areas have different restrictions on where you can shoot them off, but public parks and beaches are pretty common places.
