Fireworks Laws by State (2026): What Is Legal, Sale Dates, Penalties
Independently fact-checked against primary sources (last audited September 18, 2026). · 25 primary sources cited on this page. How we verify our legal content
Federal law sets a safety and classification floor for fireworks: what counts as a "consumer" firework, and a short list of devices banned nationwide no matter what any state allows. It does not legalize anything a state prohibits. What you can actually buy, sell, and use is set state by state, and the pattern breaks into five postures: a 24-state broad-allow group that treats most 1.4G consumer fireworks as legal, a 14-state group that allows only ground-based novelties, a 7-state local-option group that leaves the decision to counties or cities, a 4-state hybrid group whose statute mixes two of those mechanics in one state, and 2 states that run a full or near-total ban. This page explains the federal baseline, then breaks down all 50 states plus DC, as of September 2026.
Jurisdiction scope: This article covers the federal baseline for consumer and display fireworks under CPSC and ATF regulation, and state-by-state fireworks law in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia. It does not address Canadian provincial fireworks law or local city and county ordinances beyond what is noted for the local-option states.
What federal law actually regulates about fireworks
Federal law does not grant anyone a right to buy or use fireworks. It sets three things: construction and safety standards for the fireworks a state chooses to allow, a short list of devices banned everywhere regardless of state law, and the line between "consumer" and "display" fireworks.
16 CFR Part 1507 prescribes construction and performance requirements for fireworks devices other than firecrackers. Any device that fails to meet those requirements, such as a fuse that does not burn between 3 and 9 seconds inclusive and is not securely attached so it supports either the weight of the device plus 8 ounces, or double the weight of the device, whichever is less, is a "banned hazardous substance" and is prohibited from interstate commerce (16 CFR 1507.1, 16 CFR 1507.3).
A separate regulation, 16 CFR 1500.17, bans specific devices as hazardous substances no matter what any state permits. That includes devices that produce an audible effect using more than 2 grains (130 milligrams) of pyrotechnic composition, the category that covers cherry bombs, M-80s, and silver salutes (16 CFR 1500.17(a)(3)); firecrackers whose audible effect uses more than 50 milligrams (.772 grains) of composition, along with aerial bombs and devices made to look like candy or food, such as "dragon eggs" and "cracker balls" (16 CFR 1500.17(a)(8)); and, as a catch-all, any fireworks device other than a firecracker that does not meet Part 1507's requirements (16 CFR 1500.17(a)(9)). A narrow wildlife-management-program exception applies to each of these.
ATF's regulations draw the line between the fireworks a consumer can buy and the fireworks limited to licensed professionals. "Display fireworks" are large devices designed primarily to produce visible or audible effects, classified UN0333, UN0334, or UN0335 (DOT Class 1.3G). "Consumer fireworks" are small devices that must comply with CPSC's construction, chemical-composition, and labeling rules, classified UN0336 and UN0337 (DOT Class 1.4G). "Articles pyrotechnic" are a third, professional-use-only category similar to consumer fireworks in composition but not sold to the public (27 CFR 555.11). CPSC's own guidance cautions that the UN/DOT code is a strong proxy for this split, not an absolute rule: a device carrying a different code can still be regulated as a consumer product if it is marketed with consumer packaging. The two categories are also treated differently under federal explosives-storage law: ATF's process-building distance table caps consumer fireworks at a flat 37-foot separation regardless of weight up to 500 pounds, while display fireworks scale from 57 to 91-plus feet (27 CFR 555.222), a concrete sign of how differently federal law treats the two hazard classes.
None of this legalizes anything. Whether a "consumer fireworks" device that meets the federal standard is actually legal to buy, sell, or use in a given state, and under what conditions, is a question state law answers on its own, and states differ enormously, as the table below shows.
Fireworks laws by state (comparison table)
"What is legal" summarizes the state's device category. "Sale window" and "Use window / hours" reflect statewide dates or hours where one exists; many states instead gate sale by license or permit rather than by calendar date, and that is noted where confirmed, and several states run a different calendar for sale than for actual discharge. "Age" is the minimum purchaser age where confirmed. "Local option" summarizes whether, and how, a county or city can change the state rule.
| State | What is legal | Sale window | Use window / hours | Age | Local option | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Class C (1.4G) consumer fireworks broadly legal statewide, incl. aerial and audible devices, with composition caps | No statewide sale-date window (permit/ID-gated system) | Same as sale window: no calendar window; discharge is controlled by location rules, not dates | 16+ (unless accompanied by an adult); every purchaser must show ID | Municipalities may restrict aerial/audible devices by ordinance, and any municipality may restrict sparkling devices/novelties (§8-17-226); Fire Marshal keeps a list of (b) ordinances; Class 1 municipality carve-out | Class A misdemeanor, $100-$1,000 and/or 30 days-1 year (general); Class C felony, $500-$5,000 and/or 1yr1day-10yrs for illegal ground salutes (§8-17-224) |
| Alaska | Consumer fireworks (1.4G) legal statewide via State Fire Marshal permit-holding retailers; display fireworks need a separate pyrotechnic license | No statewide calendar window (permit-gated); fire marshal may suspend sale/use during a high or extreme wildfire-danger declaration | Statute sets none (no calendar window) | 18 (by regulation, 13 AAC 50.025/IFC §5608.11.10: not stated in Ch. 18.72 itself) | City/borough may adopt a more restrictive ordinance; state overrides a less restrictive local ordinance (§18.72.060); retail permit is void if the sale/use location is in a jurisdiction that has banned fireworks by ordinance | Class B misdemeanor, each day a separate offense (§18.72.040) |
| Arizona | General ban with a 10-category ground-only "permissible consumer fireworks" carve-out (APA 87-1); anything aerial (firecrackers, bottle rockets, roman candles, etc.) stays banned statewide | No statewide sale calendar; §36-1606(A) instead sets the outer bounds a city, town, or county may narrow sale to (large counties ≥500k: Apr 25-May 6, May 20-Jul 6, Dec 10-Jan 3 + Diwali; small counties under 500k: May 20-Jul 6, Dec 10-Jan 3 only); absent a local ordinance, no restriction at all | Same bounded structure: large counties May 4-6, Jun 24-Jul 6, Dec 26-Jan 4 (+Diwali); small counties Jun 24-Jul 6, Dec 26-Jan 4 only; optional 11pm-8am curfew is a local option | 16 (sale only, §36-1609(B)) | Preemption is bounded, not absolute: local govt may regulate sale per NFPA 1124, narrow sale/use to the statutory windows above, add a nightly curfew, and bar use near preservation land/wilderness (bounds differ by county size); cannot ban sale outright | $1,000 civil penalty for a general violation (§36-1608(A)); Class 1 misdemeanor (min. $1,000 fine) for use on qualifying city/town preservation land (§36-1608(B)); separate $1,000 civil penalty for use on state land (§36-1610) |
| Arkansas | "Class C common fireworks" (state's 1.4G equivalent) broadly legal at retail and for use; sparklers + listed novelties exempt from the season entirely | June 13-July 10 and Dec 10-Jan 5 for seasonal/temporary sellers (moved from June 20 by 2025 Acts No. 108); year-round at a permanent retail location (sale only) | Same June 13-July 10 / Dec 10-Jan 5 dates govern use; the permanent-location exception is sale-only, not a use exception | 12 | Any municipality may regulate or prohibit sale/use (§20-22-704); the statute does not on its face extend the same power to counties | Misdemeanor, $50-$200 and/or up to 90 days (general, §20-22-705); operating w/o license/permit: $100-$5,000 + up to a 5-yr license bar (§20-22-706(b)) |
| California | Only State Fire Marshal-certified "safe and sane" fireworks, and only where the local city/county/fire district has not banned them; "dangerous fireworks" (firecrackers, skyrockets, roman candles) need a State Fire Marshal permit just to possess | Statewide 12 noon June 28-12 noon July 6 (9 days) where locally permitted (§12599); retailer license application due June 15 | No separate statewide use-date window; the cited dates are the retail sale window under §12599. Discharge is governed by the same §12541 local-ordinance overlay that governs sale | 16 for safe-and-sane (§12689(b)); 18 for dangerous fireworks and for rockets/rocket-propelled launchers (§12689(a),(c)) | Central mechanic: §12541: nothing in state law authorizes sale/use/discharge where a city/county/city-and-county has otherwise prohibited or regulated by ordinance; §12541.1 extends the same authority to fire protection districts (county/city ordinance controls over a conflicting district ordinance; state regulation controls over a district ordinance in a state responsibility area) | Misdemeanor, $1,000-$2,000 and/or up to 1 yr county jail, general (§12700(a)); dangerous-fireworks possession graded by weight up to $20,000-$100,000 + felony imprisonment over 5,000 lbs (§12700(b)); sale to a minor under §12702 |
| Colorado | Only "permissible fireworks," a ground-based novelty category that expressly excludes aerial devices and audible ground devices incl. firecrackers (§24-33.5-2001(11)(b)) | No statewide calendar window; licensing-gated | Statute sets none | 16 (furnish/purchase ban); a supervised under-16 may possess/discharge under adult supervision | Municipalities and counties may add restrictions or ban outright, never authorize more than the state allows; fire protection districts cannot prohibit sale of permissible fireworks (§30-15-401.5(10)) | Petty offense, up to $300 fine and/or up to 10 days county jail for offenses on/after Mar 1, 2022 (§18-1.3-503(1.5) via §24-33.5-2010); the $750/6-month figures on the mandated retail warning sign are outdated pre-2022 numbers, not the current penalty |
| Connecticut | General ban; the one carve-out lets a person 16+ sell/buy/use/possess nonexplosive, nonaerial sparklers or fountains capped at 100g of pyrotechnic mixture per item | No statewide calendar window; controlled by age, device specification, and licensing instead | Same: none | 16 | Not confirmed within the statute itself | Class C misdemeanor (general ban); Class A misdemeanor for sale/possession-to-sell over $10,000 value or a display-permit violation (Class C felony if death/injury results); Class C misdemeanor for licensing/insurance violations (§29-366) |
| Delaware | General ban on true fireworks (firecrackers, rockets, torpedoes, Roman candles, fire balloons); sparklers and a defined list of ground-based novelties exempt for adults 18+ | Sold only in the 30-day period before each of 4 approved use dates | July 4, the 3rd day of Diwali, Dec 31, and Jan 1 only | 18 | No chapter-specific local-option clause; the only local power found is a general nuisance-ordinance power letting an unincorporated town of 300+ residents pass an ordinance (fine capped $100) covering fireworks among other nuisances (tit. 22, §102) | Fine-only, $25-$100 (§6905(a)); no jail term, no misdemeanor/felony classification, no enhanced repeat-offense fine |
| District of Columbia | Narrow permitted list only (toy paper caps, sparklers ≤20in, torches, box fire, fountains, cones, non-poisonous snakes, paper novelty items, colored lights, + fire-code-official-approved items); firecrackers/explosive/aerial devices banned outright; manufacturing is banned entirely, even of a permitted item | Year-round, no calendar window; retail sale barred 10pm-10am | No calendar window or clock-hours rule on discharge; controlled instead by two 50-ft buffer rules | No buyer minimum in the Fire Code; sellers must be 18+ | Not applicable: DC has no sub-jurisdictions with independent lawmaking power over fireworks | Up to $2,000 and/or 90 days per violation, plus a separate civil-infraction fine track, all under D.C. Code §6-1406 (permit-gated under 12-H DCMR §5609); Fire Chief may seize/impound/destroy after 30 days' notice (§5609.6) |
| Florida | Sparklers and a statutory list of novelties are defined out of "fireworks" entirely and legal year-round; true fireworks stay generally banned but get a separate holiday-only use exemption | Sparklers/novelties: no seasonal window, sold at all times; true fireworks have no retail-sale exemption outside the display-permit process; §791.01(7) separately defines a "seasonal retailer" seller-registration category (Jun 20-Jul 5, Dec 10-Jan 2), not a buyer's use-date rule | Sparklers/novelties: any time. True fireworks: only New Year's Day, July 4, and New Year's Eve, under the §791.08 holiday-use exemption | No statewide purchaser age minimum in ch. 791 | Chapter is "applied uniformly," but §791.08(2) + a 2007 session-law cutoff bar a new post-March 8, 2007 local ordinance directly prohibiting/interfering with fireworks rights; a pre-2007 local ordinance is undisturbed; stricter local display standards remain allowed | Misdemeanor of the first degree, up to $1,000 and/or up to 1 year (§§791.06, 775.082-.083); no separate repeat-offense tier |
| Georgia | Consumer fireworks (incl. Roman candles) broadly legal for adults 18+ through licensed distributors; specific bans on sky/fire lanterns, indoor use, road-right-of-way use, and sale from a vehicle/trailer/tent | No statewide calendar window; licensed year-round sale | Daily 10:00 am-11:59 pm (narrower only under a qualifying local noise ordinance or a local special-use-permit requirement); the same window (no override) plus midnight-1am on Jan 1 applies on Jan 1, last Sat/Sun in May, Jul 3-4, 1st Mon in Sept, and Dec 31 | 18, face-to-face sale with government ID | State preempts local bans on lawful consumer fireworks sale/use/ignition (§36-60-24; conflicting ordinances void); localities keep narrow powers: a qualifying noise ordinance can shorten the daily window, a special-use permit (fee capped $100) can be required, sale/use can be licensed, and (since 7/1/2025) use can be barred within 200 yards of an equine facility | As of 7/1/2024, the base unauthorized sale/use/possession/manufacture/transport/storage violation is a felony (1-5 yrs, §16-7-23(b)) plus up to $10,000 (§25-10-8(b)); unlicensed proximate-audience display is a felony (2-10 yrs/$10,000); other violations (hours, sale to minor) are misdemeanors w/ administrative penalties up to $2,500 ($5,000 for a knowing tent/canopy sale) |
| Hawaii | Every category (aerial devices, articles pyrotechnic, consumer fireworks, display fireworks) requires a state license just to import/store/distribute/possess: no unlicensed walk-in-and-buy category exists | Retail distribution to the public capped at no more than 5 calendar days before each permissible-use period, cutting off by a fixed clock time on the use date itself (§132D-5.5(b)) | 9pm New Year's Eve-1am New Year's Day; 7am-7pm Chinese New Year's Day; 1pm-9pm July 4; or 9am-9pm on any other date under a separate $25 cultural-use permit; each requires its own $25 purchase/use permit (statutory text is ambiguous whether the permit reaches items beyond firecrackers) | No numeric minimum stated; distributing to a minor is a felony (§132D-12), and a parent/guardian who knowingly permits a minor's possession/purchase/use is a separate offense (§132D-13) | Counties may not adopt an ordinance less stringent than ch. 132D but are free to go stricter (§132D-17.5); a separate proviso (§132D-10(b)) lets a county set stricter rules specifically for the firecracker/cultural-use permits; Honolulu's import ban on consumer fireworks was upheld under this power | Unlicensed import/storage/distribution of any category is a class C felony (class B at 25+ lbs); unpermitted consumer-fireworks use is a flat $200 civil fine, mistimed distribution a $1,000 civil fine (§132D-5.5(d)); sending/receiving any fireworks by mail/courier/air delivery is a separate class C-to-A felony (§132D-5.2) |
| Idaho | Only "nonaerial common fireworks" (ground spinners, fountains, sparklers, smoke devices, snakes staying within a 15-ft/20-ft spread and 20-ft height) authorized for general consumer use; firecrackers, jumping jacks, and "special fireworks" excluded; a separate export exception lets a licensed Idaho stand sell aerial/firecracker devices for out-of-state use only | Midnight June 23-midnight July 5 and midnight Dec 26-midnight Jan 1; a local authority may extend the sales period (not the use period) by up to 5 days at its discretion | Same June 23-July 5 / Dec 26-Jan 1 dates; a §39-2605 permit can authorize use outside these windows or of devices beyond nonaerial common fireworks | No statewide purchaser age minimum | A local authority may require its own retail-sale permit (capped $25 fee), extend the sales period, and restrict use in areas it determines pose a severe wildfire threat (§39-2609(4)); the chapter doesn't state whether a locality may ban nonaerial common fireworks outright | Infraction, flat $100 fine, no jail, for altering fireworks or selling/using outside the authorized window (§39-2609); every other violation (throwing at a vehicle/person, operating without a license/permit) is a misdemeanor (§39-2613) |
| Illinois | General public retail sale, possession, and use of both display fireworks and consumer fireworks is banned (425 ILCS 35/2); the only lawful path to use consumer fireworks is an individual consumer-display permit (adult, State-Fire-Marshal-approved training) for a specific display; a fixed list of low-powered novelties (toy caps, snake/glow-worm pellets, smoke devices, sparklers, trick noisemakers) is excluded from "consumer fireworks" and legal for anyone at all times | None: there is no general retail category to schedule; sale/use authorized only for the display date on an approved permit; a registered distributor is capped at selling 499 lbs to one individual without extra sign-off | Same: none | No numeric purchaser-age minimum stated (no lawful general retail sale exists); a display-permit applicant must be an adult | Cities, villages, and incorporated towns may regulate/restrain/prohibit fireworks within their limits (425 ILCS 30/24): counties are not named in that clause; outside city/village/town limits, a county board instead holds the narrower power to grant display permits | Flat Class A misdemeanor (425 ILCS 35/5), not tiered by weight, device, or repeat offense |
| Indiana | Consumer fireworks (1.4G) broadly legal statewide through registered retailers/wholesalers; "special fireworks" (higher-power) sold only interstate-wholesaler-to-wholesaler, not at retail | No statewide calendar window; certificate/registration-gated | 9am-11pm daily by statewide default, extended to midnight on a statutory holiday or Dec 31; a local ordinance may narrow further but cannot restrict 3 protected windows (days flanking July 4, July 4 itself 10am-midnight, New Year's 10am Dec 31-1am Jan 1) | 18 to buy consumer fireworks (also 18 to buy sparklers/fountains/snakes/other listed novelty items: same list, same age floor); a seller of consumer fireworks must be 18+, a seller of a novelty item 16+ | A county/municipality may narrow days/hours further but cannot go below the 3 protected windows above, and cannot be more lenient than a state agency rule | Tiered ladder: Class C infraction baseline (escalating to a Class A or Class C misdemeanor on repeat within 5 yrs), rising to a Class A misdemeanor for property-harm use, Level 6 felony for serious injury, Level 5 felony for a death caused by reckless/knowing/intentional use (§22-11-14-6) |
| Iowa | "Consumer fireworks" (first-class incl. aerial shells/rockets/Roman candles and second-class ground/handheld devices, both by APA 87-1 cross-reference) broadly legal on the owner's own property or with owner consent; "display fireworks" (non-enumerated, exceeds consumer/novelty limits) banned for the public outside a licensed display permit | Permanent-building retailer: June 1-July 8 and Dec 10-Jan 3 (matches use window); temporary-structure retailer: narrower, June 13-July 8 only, no winter season | June 1-July 8 and Dec 10-Jan 3, all dates inclusive (§727.2(4)(a)); daily hours 9am-10pm, extended to 11pm around July 4/New Year's weekends, and 9am Dec 31-12:30am Jan 1 | 18 (sale and purchase; no age floor stated for possession/use itself) | A city council may prohibit/limit fireworks use on any day except July 3, July 4, and Dec 31 (protected floor, §364.2(6)); a county board has a narrower version (consumer/display only, not novelties, and only on a public-safety/nuisance finding, §331.301(17)) | Simple misdemeanor for most violations, $250 minimum fine (unauthorized display-fireworks sale/use, sale to a minor, underage purchase); the dates/hours/property-consent violation (§727.2(4)) is fine-only by statute: a court cannot order imprisonment for it; violating the seller-license statute (§10A.519) is a separate simple misdemeanor |
| Kansas | Consumer fireworks, display fireworks, and articles pyrotechnic all sellable/usable/discharge-able statewide under state licensing; bottle rockets are banned outright (unclassified misdemeanor, up to $100) regardless of license, under K.S.A. 31-507 | Seasonal retailer window is June 20-July 7 (widened from a prior 9-day regulatory window by K.S.A. 31-502(j) as amended 2025, SB 199, eff. Apr. 24, 2025); a permanent retailer may sell consumer fireworks year-round under the same 2025 amendment | No statewide use-date window or hours restriction: K.S.A. 31-134(b) routes that decision entirely to each municipality | No statewide retail-purchase age minimum (the age-21 rule in §31-503(e) applies to a license holder, not a customer) | Unusually broad: K.S.A. 31-134(b) preserves a municipality's power to regulate or prohibit the sale, handling, use, or storage of fireworks within its own boundaries | Civil, not criminal, for most violations: up to $1,000 per violation from the state fire marshal (§31-510(a)), daily-continuing for a license failure; the one criminal exception is the bottle-rocket ban itself, an unclassified misdemeanor up to $100 (§31-507(b)) |
| Kentucky | "Consumer fireworks" split into ground/hand-held sparkling devices (sparklers, fountains, wheels: no separate use-age/distance rule) and aerial/audible devices (rockets, Roman candles, firecrackers: must be 18+, 200 ft from structures/people, and comply w/ local ordinance to use); "display fireworks" (the larger professional-grade category) banned for the public by default, with 9 statutory exceptions (chiefly a local-official permit) | No hard statutory sale-date ban; a retailer registered as a year-round primary business may sell any time; June 10-July 7/Dec 26-Jan 4 only define the separate "seasonal retailer" registration category, not a restriction on when sale is allowed | No statewide calendar-date or hours restriction for either device group; timing is controlled entirely by local ordinance (§227.750(4)) | 18 to buy any consumer firework (either group, §227.715(8)); 18 to use only the aerial/audible group (§227.715(11)(a)): no separate use-age for sparklers/fountains | Broad, unqualified: "nothing...shall restrict a local government from enacting ordinances that affect the sale or use of fireworks within its jurisdiction" (§227.750(4)) | Misdemeanor, up to $1,000 and/or up to 30 days in county jail (§227.990(4)), not tiered by repeat offense |
| Louisiana | "Permissible fireworks" (un0336/1.4G/1.4S Class C common fireworks) listed device-by-device with composition caps, incl. Roman candles, rockets, mine/shell devices; a specific named list (cherry bombs, tubular salutes, oversized firecrackers/torpedoes/Roman candles/sky rockets, sky lanterns) is banned outright and shipping them into the state is itself illegal | Noon June 16-midnight July 5 and noon Dec 15-midnight Jan 1 (§51:652(B)); selling/storing for future sale at any inhabited dwelling is barred regardless of season | No statewide discharge-date/hours rule beyond the sale window; two statewide location rules instead (1,000 ft from church/hospital/school/public building/retail location; 75 ft from stored flammable liquids or a fireworks storage/sale point); timing beyond the sale window is a parish/municipal matter | Sale barred to a child known to be under 15, or to a known-intoxicated or known-irresponsible person (§51:654(A)) | Every parish and municipality may regulate or prohibit sale, use, and possession within its own jurisdiction, in conformity with the state chapter (§51:660) | Selling a permissible firework in violation of §51:651 draws an escalating fire-marshal fine ($250/$500/$1,000+permit suspension-revocation on a 3rd violation w/in 36 mos); the banned-devices list (§51:651.1) is a felony: up to $1,000 and up to 2 yrs with/without hard labor; operating w/o a permit: up to $10,000/6 months, each day+location separate |
| Maine | "Consumer fireworks" = federal 27 CFR 555.11 standard minus 3 carved-out device classes (missile-type rockets, helicopters/aerial spinners, sky/bottle rockets ≤20g) which are themselves illegal to possess at all as plain "fireworks"; sellers need a 3-credential stack (federal ATF permit + state license + municipal permit where required) | No statewide calendar sale-date window; gated by the 3-credential licensing stack instead | 9am-10pm daily, extended to 9am-12:30am the next day on July 4, Dec 31, and the surrounding weekends; use limited to the user's own property or property with owner consent | 21 (buy, possess, and use: reaches every side of the transaction, not just sale, §223-A(11)) | A municipality's legislative body may vote to prohibit or restrict either the sale or the use of consumer fireworks within its own borders (§223-A(2)); functions as the practical control on timing since the state sets no calendar window | Selling non-consumer fireworks is a Class B/C/D crime tiered by dollar value; unlicensed sale or sale to a minor/intoxicated buyer is a Class D crime (mandatory min. $500 fine if furnished to a minor, $1,000 on a repeat w/in 6 yrs); a minor's own purchase/use/possession is a civil violation, $200-$400 ($300-$600 on repeat) |
| Maryland | Narrow, exclusion-based: only 6 specific low-risk items (chlorate/perchlorate-free sparklers, CPSC-labeled ground-based sparkling devices, minimal-composition toy caps/paper snappers, non-mercury "snakes") fall outside the definition of "fireworks" and are unrestricted; everything else requires a State Fire Marshal discharge permit before possession-with-intent-to-discharge or discharge | No statewide calendar sale-date or use-date window; sale of excluded novelty items is age-gated (16+), not date-gated; sale of anything else is a licensed-plant/dealer matter | None stated; §10-103(c) makes discharge legality depend entirely on the political subdivision's own ordinance | 16 for sparklers/sparkling devices (§10-112); no age floor stated for the discharge-permit category (anyone requires the permit regardless of age) | A state discharge permit does not authorize discharge in violation of local ordinance and does not excuse a permit holder from any additional local license requirement (§10-103(c)): local rule controls | Unpermitted possession/discharge: up to $250/offense; unpermitted sale: up to $1,000/offense (§10-111, both fine-only); sparkler sale to a minor: up to $1,000 (§10-112); manufacturing outside a licensed plant, or failing to register as a sparkler distributor/wholesaler: up to 1 yr + $1,000 (§10-210(a), §10-113(d)) |
| Massachusetts | Full ban: sale, possession, use, and explosion of fireworks are all unlawful for consumers, including sparklers by name; the only consumer-facing exclusion is 2 narrow cap-firing toy-pistol/cap categories, legal at all times | Not applicable (full ban; the one real sale exception is selling for shipment directly out of the commonwealth) | Not applicable | Not applicable (no lawful consumer purchase exists) | Not applicable: no municipality can authorize what the state bans; §39A is a display-permit channel for organizations, not a local-option statute | Selling/keeping/offering for sale: $100-$1,000 and/or up to 1 yr, warrantless arrest authorized, forfeiture on conviction; possession/use/explosion: $10-$100, mandatory warrantless seizure, forfeiture on conviction |
| Michigan | Consumer fireworks (1.4G) and "low-impact" fireworks broadly legal statewide through a certificate-holding retailer or the state low-impact registry; "novelties" fall entirely outside the Act (no local regulation possible) | No statewide calendar sale-date window; certificate/registry-gated year-round | Local units set discharge hours (not sale itself); an ordinance cannot restrict use after 11am on statutory safe-harbor dates (Dec 31-1am Jan 1; Sat/Sun before Memorial Day-11:45pm; June 29-July 4-11:45pm; July 5 if Fri/Sat-11:45pm; Sat/Sun before Labor Day-11:45pm) | 18 (minor defined as under 18); seller must verify ID | Local units cannot regulate sale/storage/display/transport/distribution at all (state-exclusive, §28.457(1)); may only set discharge hours within the statutory safe-harbor floor; a local hours-ordinance violation is capped at a flat $1,000 civil fine | Tiered criminal ladder (§28.468): up to 30 days/$1,000 baseline misdemeanor, up to 90 days/$5,000 for property damage, up to 5 yrs/$5,000 felony for serious injury, up to 15 yrs/$10,000 felony for a death; several specific violations (unauthorized-property discharge, intoxicated use, smoking-prohibition) are separate civil infractions |
| Minnesota | Bans nearly all consumer fireworks; only a narrow, weight-capped novelty list (sparklers ≤100g, other ground sparkling items ≤75g/tube, snakes/glow worms, smoke devices, trick noisemakers ≤0.25 grains) is excluded from "fireworks" and legal | No statewide calendar sale-date window; sale of excluded items is age/ID-gated, not date-gated; everything else stays prohibited regardless of date | None stated for excluded items beyond the location rule (not permitted on public property) | 18+ with photo ID, for the excluded novelty items only | A local unit may charge an annual retail license fee (capped $350 sparkler-only / $100 other) but may not impose any other fee, may not prohibit/restrict display of NFPA-1124-compliant items, and may not impose discriminatory bonding/insurance terms | Tiered by quantity/type (§624.25): up to 364 days/$3,000 for 35+ lbs of explosive fireworks; up to 90 days/$1,000 for a smaller amount of explosive fireworks or any amount of non-explosive fireworks; no repeat-offense enhancement |
| Mississippi | General ban with an exemption for devices classified/labeled "Class C common fireworks" (ICC standard, audible-effect devices capped at 2 grains); paper caps for toy guns and nonexplosive sparklers are excluded from "fireworks" entirely | Effective July 1, 2025 (2025 Miss. Laws ch. 417, SB 2210): May 23-July 12 and Dec 5-Jan 9: a 37-day expansion of the prior June 15-July 5/Dec 5-Jan 2 windows | Not separately stated beyond the sale window; location rules apply instead (600 ft from church/hospital/school; 75 ft from a storage/sale point; never from/into a motor vehicle) | 12 | A municipality or county board of supervisors may regulate or prohibit fireworks possession/sale/use of any kind within its own limits (§45-13-13): broad local-option authority separate from the exhibition-permit track | Effective July 1, 2025 (same 2025 SB 2210), downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor: up to $1,000/1 yr (1st), $2,500/1 yr (2nd), $5,000/1 yr (3rd+); plus a civil-liability track letting an injured person sue the seller/dealer/manufacturer |
| Missouri | "Permissible items of consumer fireworks" (federal 1.4G/CPSC-compliant) broadly legal from a permitted seller; named ground salutes (cherry bombs, M-80s, M-100s, M-1000s, other tubular salutes, or anything exceeding composition limits) are expressly banned and a class D felony | Annual-permit retailer: year-round (Jan 1-Dec 31); seasonal-permit retailer: June 20-July 10 and Dec 20-Jan 2 only | Not separately date-restricted beyond the sale windows; location rules instead (600 ft church/hospital/mental-health/school; 100 ft storage/sale point; 300 ft stored ignitable liquid/gas station; never from/into a vehicle or watercraft except a permitted floating display) | Retail sale to a child under 14 unlawful unless a parent/guardian is present (§320.151); criminally negligent sale to a child under 14 without written parental consent is a separate offense (§568.070) | Cities, towns, villages, and any charter-form county keep full authority to regulate/prohibit fireworks within their own limits (§320.121); St. Louis County's rules supersede a conflicting municipal rule only where the county's is more restrictive (§320.122) | General violation is a class A misdemeanor; a §320.136 ground-salute violation is a class D felony (§320.161); selling/shipping without a required permit adds a separate civil penalty up to $1,000/day, capped $10,000 (§320.111) |
| Montana | "Permissible fireworks" = the federal consumer-fireworks category (27 CFR 555.11 + 16 CFR parts 1500/1507) broadly legal statewide; anything outside that federal definition needs a supervised public-display permit | June 24-July 5 and Dec 29-Dec 31 only (§50-37-106): a notably short 3-day winter window; mail-order sale barred regardless of date | Not separately date-restricted beyond the sale windows; location rules instead (not within a state forest/park/recreation area; not within 100 ft of a retail sales location; never from/into a vehicle; not near a person/group/animal in a way likely to cause injury); sale barred within 300 ft of a hospital or church | No statewide purchaser age minimum; the statute instead bars anyone under 18 from selling (§50-37-103(2)) | City/town councils may regulate or prohibit fireworks within their own limits (§7-33-4206), a penalty provision under Mont. Code Ann. §50-37-110; the state chapter itself says nothing in it authorizes sale in a city/town that has banned it (§50-37-102(3)) | Misdemeanor, $100-$500 and/or 30 days-6 months for an individual (or a partnership's members/an entity's responsible officers), under §50-37-110; a fire official must also seize illegal stock at the owner's expense (§50-37-109) |
| Nebraska | "Consumer fireworks" (federal 1.4G, tested/approved) legal statewide; wire sparklers are excluded from the statutory definition by name (§28-1241(8)(c)) though the State Fire Marshal's own regulation has historically treated silver/gold wire sparklers as permitted (a 2009-dated posted list, currency unconfirmed) | Unlawful outside an incorporated city or village regardless of date; within city/village limits, confined to June 24-July 5 and Dec 28-Jan 1 (§28-1249) | No statewide use-date window or hours restriction beyond the sale-location/window rule; a separate "unlawful throwing" offense (from/into a vehicle, onto a street, at a person, into a building, at a group) is a Class III misdemeanor | No statewide purchaser or seller age minimum anywhere in the Fireworks Act | General municipal police-power statutes (e.g., §17-137 for 2nd-class cities) give a city its own power to "regulate, prohibit, and restrain" fireworks use, but how that interacts with the Fireworks Act's own city-limits sale assumption is unresolved by either statute's text | Class III misdemeanor for violating §§28-1244 to 28-1249 (§28-1250(1)), with a licensed distributor's/jobber's license suspendable up to 3 yrs; unlawful throwing is a separate Class III misdemeanor (§28-1242) |
| Nevada | No general statewide statute makes any class of fireworks legal or illegal; NRS 244.367 delegates that decision entirely to each county's board of commissioners | Set entirely by county ordinance; no statewide rule | Set entirely by county ordinance; no statewide rule (separately, a written State Forester Firewarden permit is required to set off fireworks in a forest/grass/brush area outside an incorporated city or town, statewide) | No statewide purchase-age floor; state law only bars a county ordinance from applying to a child under 18 unless emancipated (§244.367(3)): a floor on enforcement, not a purchase-age rule | Full delegation: each county's board of commissioners may prohibit, restrict, suppress, or otherwise regulate sale/use/storage/possession by its own ordinance (§244.367(1)); Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno) are large enough that the State Fire Marshal's general regulatory authority doesn't automatically extend there | A county's civil penalty is capped by state law at $250-$1,000 (under 100 lbs gross wt.), $1,000-$5,000 (100-5,000 lbs), $5,000-$10,000 (over 5,000 lbs), per §244.367(1)(b); a county's criminal penalty amount is left to the ordinance itself; a wildfire-area discharge violation w/o a permit is a separate statewide misdemeanor (§472.520) |
| New Hampshire | "Permissible fireworks" (the broad federal consumer-fireworks standard, incl. firecrackers/aerial repeaters/Roman candles) legal statewide by default unless a municipality has voted otherwise; Class "C" sparklers and any wire/stick sparkler containing chlorates/perchlorates are banned statewide regardless of local vote | No statewide calendar sale-date restriction; gated by a 3-credential stack (federal Title 18 permit + state license + local permit) and the local-option vote | No statewide calendar use-date or hours restriction; controlled by the same licensing/local-option structure | 21 to buy, possess, and use (18-21 exception only for active-duty military/state guard members called to active service) | Each municipality may vote to allow or prohibit, within that municipality, sale-permit issuance and/or possession/display, and can do one without the other (§160-C:6): the practical answer to "are fireworks legal here" varies town by town | Unlicensed/underage sale is a misdemeanor (§160-C:2); failing to post the required prohibiting-municipalities list, or an age-21/local-option possession violation, is a violation (individual) or Class B misdemeanor (entity); selling after an emergency-removal notice is a Class B misdemeanor w/ license revocation (10-30 days, or full term on a 3rd violation) |
| New Jersey | Bans nearly everything ("fireworks" incl. firecrackers, torpedoes, skyrockets, Roman candles, bombs); the lawful carve-out is a narrow "sparkling devices and novelties" category (wood/wire sparklers ≤100g, hand-held/ground-based sparkling devices ≤75g/tube, snakes/glow worms/smoke devices/trick noisemakers) for anyone 16+; a separately defined "dangerous fireworks" subclass is banned with no exception at all | No statewide calendar sale-date or use-date window for sparkling devices/novelties | Same: none stated | 16 for sparkling devices/novelties (no separate state purchase permit required beyond the age floor) | Preempted: a municipality cannot add further regulation on sparkling devices/novelties beyond the state statute; the only condition layered on top is NFPA 1124 storage/sale compliance | Selling banned fireworks or possessing w/ intent to sell: 4th-degree crime; purchasing, using, discharging, or possessing without intent to sell: petty disorderly persons offense (lowest tier) |
| New Mexico | A detailed, enumerated "permissible fireworks" list across 3 categories (ground/hand-held sparkling devices, aerial devices incl. reloadable shell kits/Roman candles/rockets, ground audible devices incl. firecrackers): broader than a typical novelty-only state; small bottle rockets and high-composition audible devices are carved back out | 5 fixed windows: June 20-July 6; 6 days before & incl. New Year's Day; 3 days before & incl. Chinese New Year; Sept 16 alone; Cinco de Mayo alone; a tourism-focused specialty retailer may sell year-round | No separate statewide use-date window beyond the sale-window structure; 2 flat statewide prohibitions apply regardless of date (no sale/use on state forest/wildland/bosque land; no igniting in a vehicle or throwing at a vehicle/person/group) | 16 (also bars sale to an intoxicated person) | Split by device category: a municipality/county cannot regulate/prohibit ground/hand-held sparkling devices, but can regulate/prohibit aerial devices and ground audible devices (§60-2C-7(C)); a separate drought-emergency mechanism can impose a broader temporary ban reaching even sparkling devices | Misdemeanor, up to $1,000 and/or up to 1 yr (§60-2C-10); state fire marshal may also revoke a license/permit and seize noncompliant fireworks |
| New York | "Sparkling devices" (ground/hand-held fountains and sparklers, incl. novelties like party poppers) are excluded from "fireworks"/"dangerous fireworks" everywhere except a city of 1M+ (i.e., NYC has no carve-out); everything else (aerial shells, Roman candles, rockets, firecrackers, metal-wire sparklers) stays banned statewide absent a display permit | Lawful only for a state-registered business, June 1-July 5 or Dec 26-Jan 2 (Gen. Bus. Law §392-j) | No statewide calendar use-date window once lawfully purchased; possession/use controlled by the location-of-purchase exclusion, the county local-option rule, and the age-18 rule | 18 across dangerous fireworks, fireworks, and sparkling devices | A county (not a city/town/village directly) may enact a local law prohibiting sale and use of sparkling devices, capped at a violation (use) / class B misdemeanor under $500 (sale, unless to a minor): Penal Law §405.00(5)(b)-(c); a special carve-out lets any city wholly within Orange County enact its own prohibition | Selling fireworks/dangerous fireworks: class B misdemeanor (class A if valued $500+); possessing/using/exploding: a violation (lower tier); selling to a minor: class A misdemeanor, escalating to a class E felony on a repeat dangerous-fireworks sale w/in 5 yrs |
| North Carolina | Bans "pyrotechnics of any description" by default; 6 narrowly defined novelty categories (toy-pistol caps, snakes/glow worms, smoke devices, trick noisemakers, wire sparklers ≤100g, other sparkling devices ≤75g/tube) are exempt for anyone 16+ (age rule doesn't cover toy-pistol caps or party/string poppers by its own cross-reference gap); everything else needs a licensed public display | No statewide calendar sale-date/use-date window for the exempt categories; access runs on the age-16 rule, not a season | Same: none | 16 for snakes/glow worms, smoke devices, snapper/drop-pop noisemakers, wire sparklers, and other sparkling devices (§14-410(b)); not stated for toy-pistol caps or party/string poppers by the statute's own cross-reference | Not confirmed within Article 54 itself; a county board of commissioners (or authorized city) issues public-exhibition permits (§14-413) | Class 2 misdemeanor for a general Article 54 violation, rising to a Class 1 misdemeanor if the exhibition is indoors (§14-415); the state's general default-punishment statute does not apply since Article 54 already prescribes a specific classification |
| North Dakota | Not a ban state: licensed retailers may sell ten enumerated consumer-fireworks categories (star lights/10-ball devices, helicopter-type flyers, cylindrical/cone fountains, wheels, illuminating torches/colored fire, sparklers/dipped sticks, comets/shells with integral mortar, soft-shell firecrackers, whistles without report), each under a per-item weight cap; bottle rockets under 5/8in diameter or 3.5in length are specifically banned from sale, and no size of bottle rocket is actually on the enumerated sellable list | June 27-July 5 and Dec 26-Jan 1 only; no year-round or permit-based path outside these dates for retail sale | Not set by ch. 23-15, which regulates sale only; a municipality may set its own use restriction under §40-05-01(38) | 12 | Municipalities separately have the power under §40-05-01(38) to regulate/prohibit the storage, use, and sale of fireworks: a city can prohibit retail sale within its limits even though ch. 23-15 licenses it statewide | Class B misdemeanor for any ch. 23-15 violation (up to 30 days and $1,500, §23-15-06); illegal fireworks also seized at the owner's expense (§23-15-05); bringing fireworks into nd without a wholesaler/retailer license is itself a class B misdemeanor regardless of date or device type |
| Ohio | 1.4G consumer-grade fireworks (incl. aerial) may be purchased year-round from a licensed retail showroom (the old 48-hour-removal purchase moratorium was repealed); discharge is separately limited to 10 specific calendar days/day-ranges on private property w/ owner authorization | Year-round from a licensed manufacturer/wholesaler/retailer showroom (§3743.45(A)) | 10 specific days/ranges only (Jan 1; Chinese New Year's Day; May 5; last Mon in May + preceding Sat/Sun; June 19; July 3-5; Fri/Sat/Sun before & after July 4; 1st Mon of Sept + preceding Sat/Sun; Diwali; Dec 31), further limited by fire-marshal rule to 4pm-11pm each day (until 11:59pm Dec 31; also 12am-1am Jan 1) | 18; a minor also can't enter a fireworks sales showroom unaccompanied or touch/possess fireworks on a licensed premises without the licensee's consent | A county (unincorporated territory), township (unincorporated territory), or municipal corporation may restrict discharge dates/times or ban discharge entirely within its own territory (§3743.45(D)); a conflicting township resolution prevails over the county's within the township | Graded by exactly which subsection is violated (§3743.99): core possession/sale/discharge/age-18 violations are a misdemeanor of the first degree; unlicensed manufacturing/most-serious exhibitor violations are a felony of the third degree; some manufacturer/wholesaler violations are 4th/5th-degree felonies; negligent discharge on someone else's property w/o permission is a minor misdemeanor |
| Oklahoma | A broad "Consumer Fireworks" category (CPSC-conforming, DOT 1.4G, incl. aerial devices) legal statewide; the decades-old statewide skyrocket-with-sticks ban was repealed effective May 20, 2026 by SB 1948 of 2026 (c. 446); "novelties" also legal statewide with no further condition | The fixed calendar retail windows that used to apply were also repealed effective May 20, 2026 (same 2026 SB 1948): licensed sellers may now sell year-round absent a local ordinance restricting it | No statewide calendar use-date window or hours restriction; a 2026 amendment (§1623(H)-(I)) protects a private, noncommercial outdoor display on private property from a county ban unless a burn ban or red-flag fire-danger condition is in effect | 12, unless accompanied by an adult; sale to an intoxicated/irresponsible person barred regardless of age; the retail license holder responsible for a sales point must be 16+ | State rules are minimum requirements only: any city or town may pass ordinances to further regulate or prohibit the sale and use of fireworks within its corporate limits (§1631) | Misdemeanor, two tiers: discharging fireworks or igniting aerial luminaries: up to $100; illegal sale, licensing violation, or false labeling: up to $1,000 and/or 90 days, with an 18-month license revocation on a 2nd conviction (§1628(A)) |
| Oregon | Starts from a full ban (sale, possession, use); the main exception is a narrow, mostly-closed "consumer fireworks" list (cone fountains, cylindrical fountains, flitter sparklers, ground spinners, illuminating torches, wheels, + State-Fire-Marshal-recognized items ≤500g); firecrackers, bottle rockets, aerial shells, and Roman candles are not in this category and stay banned as "display fireworks" | State Fire Marshal retail permit authorizes sale only June 23-July 6 (14 days, §480.127(2)) | No separate statewide use-date window; the cited June 23-July 6 dates are the State Fire Marshal retail sales permit window under §480.127(2), not a discharge calendar | No statewide purchaser or possession age minimum anywhere in ch. 480 | A city, county, or fire protection district's own ban stands even though the state permits sale: state law never authorizes a sale/use/discharge a locality has prohibited (§480.160(1)); a rural fire protection district's narrower ordinance power cannot prohibit anything the chapter itself authorizes and must allow at least 5 sale days/year incl. the 5 days beginning June 30 | Two separate tracks apply to the same violation: a civil penalty up to $500/violation from the State Fire Marshal (exempting a member of the public possessing under $50 retail value) plus a Class B misdemeanor under §480.990(5) |
| Pennsylvania | A broad, federally defined "consumer fireworks" category (APA 87-1/CPSC 16 CFR, incl. firecrackers, Roman candles, aerial repeaters) permitted statewide for adults; "ground and hand-held sparkling devices," "novelties," and "toy caps" are excluded from that definition entirely and permitted at all times with no age gate | No statewide sale-date restriction: a licensed facility may sell year-round, incl. online/mail order (delivery must occur at the licensed facility) | No default statewide hours rule unless a municipality opts in (10pm-10am cap, extended to 1am on July 2-4/Dec 31); no municipality may restrict use at all on July 2-4/Dec 31, Memorial Day weekend, or Labor Day weekend (one narrow exception where the 150-ft buffer can't be met) | 18 (purchase/possess/use consumer fireworks); no age gate on sparkling devices/novelties/toy caps | A municipality (city/borough/town/township: not a county) may enact conditions/prohibitions/limitations that don't conflict with the chapter and may require a reasonable-fee use permit; a facility already licensed before, or within 1 year after, the section's effective date is grandfathered against later municipal sale restrictions | 4-tier ladder by conduct (§1114): unlawful use: summary offense, up to $500 ($1,000 repeat w/in 3 yrs); unlawful sale: 2nd-degree misdemeanor, fine starting at $10,000 ($15,000+license revocation on repeat); unlawful display-fireworks sale/use, or selling a federally illegal explosive (M-80, cherry bomb, etc.): 3rd-degree felony, fine starting at $10,000 |
| Rhode Island | Bans "display fireworks" and "aerial consumer fireworks" for the public outright absent a state certificate + local permit; a defined ground-based novelty list (fountains, torches, wheels, ground spinners, flitter sparklers, sparkers, party poppers/snappers/snakes/wire sparklers) is exempt entirely, for anyone 16+; firecrackers (any explosive other than gunpowder) and toy blank-cartridge devices are separately banned, $20 fine only | No statewide calendar sale-date or use-date window anywhere in the chapters; exempt novelties sold/used "at all times"; display/aerial fireworks are gated by permit, not a calendar | Same: none | 16 for the exempt novelty category (not 18); 21 to buy a blank cartridge; 15 to buy a fulminate cartridge without parental written consent | No fireworks-specific municipal opt-in/opt-out clause; the only local hook is a general town/city ordinance power covering fire, firearms, and fireworks safety together (§45-6-1) | Two overlapping statutes: §11-13-1(b): unpermitted display/aerial violation is a felony (up to $1,000/1 yr), or a misdemeanor if under $500 value, prosecution time-barred after 30 days; §23-28.11-9(a): bare possession $100-$500/up to 1 yr, use/display a felony at least $1,000/up to 5 yrs (higher ceiling than §11-13-1's); firecrackers/toy blank-cartridge devices: flat $20 |
| South Carolina | "Consumer fireworks" (CPSC/APA 87-1-compliant, DOT 1.4G) broadly legal statewide; the 50mg (ground)/130mg (aerial) figures cap only small audible-effect devices, not visual-effect items generally; "small bottle rockets" are specifically defined and banned from retail sale/use; "display fireworks" (DOT 1.3G) wholesale-only, never retail; a separate older statute bans any device over 2 grains designed for a loud/piercing effect (cherry bombs, M-80s, etc.) regardless of Title 40 licensing | No statewide calendar sale-date, use-date, or hours restriction anywhere in Title 40 Ch. 56 or Title 23 Ch. 35; licensed retail sale is effectively year-round (licenses run calendar-year) | Same: none | 16 to buy (§40-56-220(D)); 18 to hold the seller's license (§40-56-35(A)(1)): two different numbers | Not a municipal-ban power; instead a property-based "Fireworks Prohibited Zone" mechanism: an owner/lessee/managing authority files an agreement + posts 2 conforming signs to make their own property a no-discharge zone; a county/municipality may extend a filed zone onto adjoining public property | Several tracks across 2 titles: unlicensed/Title 40 violation: misdemeanor, $1,000-$2,000/90 days-1yr (§40-56-200); loud/piercing-device possession (Title 23): misdemeanor, up to $10,000/2 yrs (§23-35-130(C)); Ch. 35's own default ladder escalates by offense up to $1,000+/90 days-1yr on a 3rd offense w/ permanent license revocation (§23-35-150); discharging into a posted Prohibited Zone: up to $100/30 days (1st), up to $200/30 days (repeat) |
| South Dakota | A defined "consumer fireworks" category (APA 87-1 ch. 3, CPSC-16-CFR-1507-labeled, DOT 1.4G) sold only by licensed wholesalers/retailers; "display fireworks" separately regulated; sale/use also flatly banned across the entire Black Hills Forest Fire Protection District + a 300-ft buffer, and in any national/state forest/park or Game Fish & Parks land without written authorization | June 27-July 5 and Dec 28-Jan 1 only; a retail licensee may never sell between midnight and 7am regardless of date; an out-of-state-sales licensee may sell nonresidents in extended early (May 1-June 26) or late (July 6-Aug 31, + Dec 28-Jan 1) seasons for an extra $1,000 fee | Narrower than the sale window: June 27 through the first Sunday after July 4, and Dec 28-Jan 1 (§34-37-16.1); smoke effects, single-shot parachute pieces w/o a flare, and APA novelties are exempt and usable year-round | No statewide purchaser/possession age minimum; the only age-18 rule is seller-side (license holders and employees) | A county may, by resolution, regulate/prohibit fireworks use outside municipal boundaries, but only during the statutory windows and only where the sd grassland fire danger index has reached "extreme" in that county (a conditional trigger, not a general opt-out power, §34-37-19) | Almost every violation is individually labeled a Class 1 (up to 1 yr/$2,000) or Class 2 (up to 30 days/$500) misdemeanor under the general statute §22-6-2; the Black Hills/parkland ban escalates from Class 2 to Class 1 on a 2nd+ violation |
| Tennessee | D.O.T. Class C common fireworks broadly legal statewide (§68-104-108); a defined toy/novelty carve-out (paper caps, cone/bottle/tube pop-off novelties, model rockets, wire sparklers ≤100g, emergency flares, matches) is sellable/usable at all times; anything exceeding Class C composition limits ("illegal ground salutes") is banned outright for any purpose statewide, and a 2nd+ violation is a Class E felony; mail-order purchase by consumers is banned | Runs through who is licensed to sell, not a single date ban: a "seasonal retailer" is confined to June 20-July 5 and Dec 10-Jan 2; a plain "retailer" permit allows sale any time during the year | No calendar use-date restriction beyond the sale window; use is restricted by location instead (600 ft from church/hospital/asylum/school; 200 ft from a storage/sale location; never from/into a vehicle or at a person/group) | 16; a 16-or-17-year-old must show state ID or be accompanied by an adult | A private act or city ordinance further restricting fireworks is unaffected by the chapter (§68-104-116); retail sale is separately banned by population band in any county over 355,000 residents (currently Shelby, Davidson, Knox, Hamilton), with narrow small-municipality and 45-year-grandfathered-stand carve-outs, plus named East Ridge and a ~10,170-10,179-resident municipality re-exemption; a separate ~58,075-58,175-resident county band defaults to legal unless the county/a municipality votes to prohibit it | Default: Class C misdemeanor (§68-104-114); a retailer's/seasonal retailer's under-16 sale violation carries its own escalating fine ($100/$250/$500) instead of the generic range; a 2nd+ illegal-ground-salutes violation is a Class E felony (1-6 yrs, §68-104-112(b)(2)) |
| Texas | "Fireworks 1.4G" permissible statewide by default (Tex. Occ. Code §2154.003(a)); "Fireworks 1.3G" (display-grade) sold only to a licensed pyrotechnic operator/distributor, never to consumers; undersized "bottle rockets" and "pop rockets" (conjunctively tested on all 3 size measures at once) are excluded, plus an open-ended CPSC catch-all; the term "bottle rocket" itself may never appear in fireworks advertising | §2154.202(g) currently exists in two conflicting, un-reconciled 2025-enacted versions (H.B. 554 vs. H.B. 5084); both agree on base windows June 24-midnight July 4 and Dec 20-midnight Jan 1, plus a county-optional May 1-midnight May 5 window near the TX-Mexico border; they diverge on a 3rd county-optional window (June 14-19 Juneteenth under one version, a Lunar New Year window under the other); a one-time July 5, 2026 sale day under §2154.202(g-1) has already expired (Sept 1, 2026, so (g-1) is no longer live); counties may separately authorize up to 4 more optional windows (Feb 25-Mar 2 Texas Independence Day; Apr 16-21 San Jacinto Day; Wed before-last Mon in May Memorial Day; 5 days before-last day of Diwali) | No statewide use-date restriction distinct from the sale windows or a statewide clock-hours restriction; use is restricted by location (600 ft church/hospital/child-care/school without written authorization; 100 ft stored flammable liquids/gases or a fireworks storage/sale point; never in/from a vehicle or thrown at one) | 16; sellers must make a reasonable effort to verify age | A county or municipality may prohibit/further regulate fireworks where specifically authorized by law; any local ordinance/order/rule already in effect on January 2, 1986 is unaffected by the chapter (§2154.004); several of the extra sale windows above are themselves county-optional, so the effective calendar varies by county | Tex. Penal Code §50.02 is not a general fireworks offense: it applies only to fireworks used to interfere with/flee a law enforcement officer (state jail felony by default, 2nd-degree felony if the device isn't a consumer firework, 1st-degree felony if it causes serious bodily injury to a known officer); ordinary Chapter 2154 violations are mostly a Class B misdemeanor (a narrower Class C misdemeanor for specific low-damage location violations), and a Class A misdemeanor for a flame-effects violation before 50+ people |
| Utah | Broad-allow by exclusion: the legal "division 1.4G common state approved explosive" category is everything that is not a named "division 1.4G dangerous explosive" under §53-7-202(6)(a): firecrackers, cannon crackers, M-80s, cherry bombs, skyrockets, missile-type rockets, single-shot/reloadable aerial shells, bottle rockets, and Roman candles are banned, but a multi-shot aerial repeater cake at or under 500 grams of pyrotechnic composition is not on that banned list and is a legal consumer firework (§53-7-202(6)(a)(ii)(D)) | June 24-July 25, Dec 29-Dec 31, and 2 days before through Chinese New Year's eve (§53-7-225(2)): a deliberately long summer window spanning both July 4 and Pioneer Day (July 24) | A separate, narrower sub-window than the sale window: 11am-11pm during July 2-5 and July 22-25 (extended to midnight on July 4 and July 24 specifically); 11am Dec 31-1am Jan 1; 11am-11pm Jan 1; and a matching Chinese New Year's eve window | No statewide minimum purchaser/possession age anywhere in the Act | Runs backward from most states: a county, municipality, or the state forester generally cannot ban discharge of a compliant device during the legal periods; local government may restrict only "negligent discharge" or a designated hazardous-conditions area, though a locality may require a retail-seller license | Two separate tracks: discharging outside the legal dates/hours: infraction, up to $1,000 (§53-7-225(4)); violating the County & Municipal Fireworks chapter generally (e.g., unlicensed retail sale): class B misdemeanor, up to $1,000/6 months (§11-3-11); a person who starts a fire via a compliant device, even during a legal period, is separately civilly liable for suppression costs/damages |
| Vermont | Bans sale/possession/use/explosion of "fireworks" without a permit; the definition is broad enough to cover nearly everything commonly bought: the only exclusions are compliant hand-held sparklers (≤14in, ≤20g), a short novelty list (snakes, party poppers, glow worms, smoke devices, string poppers, snappers, drop pops, ≤0.25 grains), and specific toy paper caps; everything else needs both a federal ATF permit and a municipal permit to sell/possess, plus a separate municipal display permit to use | No statewide calendar sale-date window anywhere in Ch. 177; timing controlled entirely through the permit application and the fire chief's/selectboard's approval | Same: none | 18 (statute bars sale of a hand-held sparkler to a "minor"; Vermont's age-of-majority statute, 1 V.S.A. §173, sets that at 18; no age floor stated for the other novelty items) | Both the sale/possession permit and the display permit are issued at the municipal level, giving towns real informal control; at least one older municipal charter (Readsboro) predates Ch. 177 and still lists fireworks among its own regulable subjects | General violation: misdemeanor, up to $100/violation and/or up to 30 days (§3135); presenting an indoor display without a permit: separate, harsher misdemeanor, up to $5,000 and/or up to 1 yr; officers may also seize fireworks held in violation and hold them pending the court's order (§3134) |
| Virginia | Only "permissible fireworks" (fountains ≤5m spark distance, wheels ≤1m flame radius, crackling devices/flashers/strobes ≤2m, sparkling devices meeting non-explosive/non-projectile/≤20in-flame/non-reloadable/fuse-timing tests) are unpermitted-legal; everything else meeting the broad "fireworks" definition (firecrackers, torpedoes, skyrockets) may not be sold, bought, or used by the public at all: only through a licensed-supplier permitted display | No statewide calendar sale-date window; year-round subject to local-ordinance override | Same: none stated | No statewide purchaser or possession age minimum anywhere in Title 27, Ch. 9 | Permissible fireworks are legal "unless prohibited by a local ordinance" (§27-96.1): a two-pronged local override (overriding the permissible-fireworks default and adopting broader fire-prevention regulations under §27-97); a state-law-legal purchase is not automatically locally legal to use | Single Class 1 misdemeanor classification for any Fire Prevention Code violation, up to 12 months and/or $2,500 (§27-100, §18.2-11(a)); officers must seize fireworks on a fireworks-related arrest, and a court must order destruction on conviction after the appeal period |
| Washington | "Consumer fireworks" (CPSC-compliant, 50mg ground/130mg aerial) sellable/usable within statutory windows, but 4 named device classes (sky rockets/missile-type rockets, firecrackers, salutes, chasers) may not be sold as consumer fireworks at all, even if they meet the composition limits: the only path back in is a narrow religious/private-organization exemption | Noon-11pm June 28; 9am-11pm June 29-July 4; 9am-9pm July 5; noon-11pm Dec 27-31 (§70.77.395(1)); toy paper caps/non-consumer novelties can be sold year-round unless a local ordinance prohibits it | A separate, different calendar from the sale window: noon-11pm June 28; 9am-11pm June 29-July 3; 9am-midnight July 4; 9am-11pm July 5; and only 6pm Dec 31-1am Jan 1 (a far narrower Dec. window than the 5-day sale period: a buyer can lawfully purchase Dec 27-30 but not legally set off until the evening of Dec 31) | 16 (no licensee may sell to anyone under 16) | A county/city may adopt a stricter ordinance at any time, but it cannot take effect sooner than one year after adoption: a mandatory advance-notice delay (§70.77.250(4)) | Discharging outside the window: misdemeanor under the chapter's general catch-all (§70.77.540); discharging recklessly: separate gross misdemeanor (§70.77.488); each additional day of a continuing violation is a separate offense; possession is a misdemeanor under 1 lb, gross misdemeanor 1 lb+; selling outside a licensed retailer's fixed place of business or to someone under 16 is its own gross misdemeanor; a separate civil penalty up to $1,000/day may also apply administratively |
| West Virginia | Broad: 4 separately defined consumer categories (consumer fireworks, sparkling devices, novelties, toy caps) all legal statewide via a State-Fire-Marshal-certified retailer; "display fireworks" (over 2 grains/130mg salutes, over 40g aerial shells, w/ a un0333-335 classification) professional-only | No statewide calendar sale-date window; available year-round from a certified retailer (certification runs April 1-March 31) | No statewide calendar use-date window or hours restriction; use restricted by consent/location/conduct instead (owner permission required; never from/at a vehicle or building; never while under the influence) | 18 to purchase/offer to sell "consumer fireworks" specifically (§29-3E-11(e)): a real textual gap: the statute's plain text does not extend that age floor to sparkling devices, novelties, or toy caps, which are separately defined | A municipality's governing body keeps full authority to prohibit or regulate consumer-fireworks use within its own boundaries (§29-3E-10): a city can ban what state law otherwise allows | Catch-all misdemeanor, $100-$500, no jail term stated (§29-3E-12); noncompliant stock is separately seized and destroyed or sold at public auction at the owner's expense (§29-3E-13) |
| Wisconsin | Does not create a broad "consumer fireworks" category: "fireworks" is defined very broadly, then a short enumerated novelty list (small caps, mercury-free toy snakes, model rocket engines, sparklers ≤36in, low-charge confetti/fuseless/smoke devices, Div. 1.4 fountains, ground-spinning novelties) is excluded and unrestricted; everything else (firecrackers, aerial shells, Roman candles, bottle rockets) requires an individual local user'S permit rather than ordinary retail purchase | No statutory sale-date window anywhere; the permit itself specifies the purchase date and use date/location case-by-case, set locally rather than by the legislature | Same: none stated by statute; even an exempt novelty item may not be used while attending someone else's permitted public display | No numeric purchase-age floor for exempt novelty items; a user's permit for regulated fireworks may not be issued to a minor (§167.10(3)(h)); a parent/guardian who consents to a minor's use is civilly liable for damage and forfeits up to $1,000, under Wisconsin's penalty structure at §167.10(9) | A city/village/town/county may enact a more restrictive ordinance (incl. sweeping some exempt novelty items back into the regulated definition), never less restrictive; a city/village/town ordinance displaces an overlapping county ordinance; no locality may criminalize mere pass-through transport to an authorized destination | Set directly in §167.10(9): unpermitted sale/use/storage-handling violation or a local-ordinance violation: forfeiture up to $1,000 (civil); violating a circuit-court injunction: up to $10,000 and/or 9 months; a consenting parent/guardian: forfeiture up to $1,000; manufacturing without the required state license: Class G felony (Wisconsin's most severe fireworks offense) |
| Wyoming | Statewide default is a full ban on sale, use, or discharge; a county becomes eligible to allow sale only through a countywide election (citizen petition ≥15% of the county's last general-election vote, or the commission's own resolution); the same election mechanism runs both directions (an authorizing county can vote to re-ban); pre-Feb-1-1990 county bans remain valid without needing the election process | Not date-restricted at the state level; an opted-in county sets its own sale rules (dates, hours, conditions) locally: not specified by the state statute itself | Same local-option structure as sale; separately, fireworks use is banned in every Wyoming state park, campground, historic landmark, and historic site regardless of county opt-in status, with a narrow supervised-display exception (§36-8-104) | No statewide age minimum; an opted-in county may set its own age rule as part of its local sale regulations | County commissioners may authorize sale after a citizen petition and referendum, or ban it the same way in a county that currently authorizes it; a municipality may add further restrictions but cannot authorize what the county has not (§35-10-205) | Misdemeanor, up to $750 and/or up to 60 days, regardless of the underlying county's opt-in status (§35-10-207); peace officers must seize fireworks held in violation, pending court disposition/destruction (§35-10-206) |
States where fireworks are fully banned or novelty-only
Two states are the strictest in the country. Massachusetts bans all consumer fireworks outright, sparklers included; nothing short of a State Fire Marshal permit for a supervised public display is legal there (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 148, §39). Minnesota bans everything except the same kind of narrow, capped-weight novelty list that Delaware and New Jersey use to qualify as novelty-only rather than ban states, sparklers up to 100 grams, ground sparkling items up to 75 grams per tube (500 grams total), snakes, glow worms, smoke devices, and low-composition trick noisemakers, but Minnesota layers two conditions those two states do not: the buyer must be 18 or older and show photo ID, not just meet an age floor, and the excluded items may not be used on public property at all (Minn. Stat. §624.20).
A second group of 14 states allow only a defined ground-based novelty or "safe and sane" subset while banning firecrackers, aerial shells, and Roman candles for consumers: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The specifics vary a great deal even within this group, and several members reach the novelty-only outcome through a mechanism other than a simple "novelties are exempt" clause. Illinois is close to a full ban itself for true consumer and display fireworks, banning both outright for the public, but 425 ILCS 35/1 excludes sparklers, snake and glow-worm pellets, smoke devices, trick noisemakers (party poppers, snappers, trick matches, cigarette loads, auto burglar alarms), and small toy pistol/cane/gun caps from the ban, and permits their sale and use at all times. Vermont limits its unpermitted exception to hand-held sparklers alone (plus a short novelty list), and unlike the rest of this group requires a federal ATF permit plus a municipal permit to sell or possess anything else, with a further, separate municipal display permit needed just to use it. Wisconsin does not write a simple "novelties are exempt" rule at all: it defines "fireworks" broadly, carves out a short enumerated list (small caps, a mercury-free toy snake, model rocket engines, sparklers up to 36 inches, low-charge confetti and fuseless devices, small fountains, and ground-spinning novelties), and requires an individual local user's permit from the mayor, village president, or town chairperson for everything else, including firecrackers and aerial shells. Delaware, DC, New Jersey, and North Carolina tie their novelty exception to a weight cap on the sparkling composition, commonly in the 75-100 gram range per item or per tube. Several of the 14, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, and Virginia, tie their novelty category to a state statutory term (Colorado's "permissible fireworks," Virginia's own "permissible fireworks" definition, Oregon's ORS 480.111(2) list) rather than a generic "safe and sane" label, and each defines its own device list, so a novelty legal in one of these states is not automatically legal in another.
Utah is not in this group despite a statute that, read quickly, sounds like it belongs here: Utah Code §53-7-202(6) bans firecrackers, cannon crackers, M-80s, cherry bombs, skyrockets, missile-type rockets, single-shot or reloadable aerial shells, bottle rockets, and Roman candles as a "dangerous explosive" the general public may not possess, discharge, sell, or buy at all, but that list does not reach aerial devices as a category: a cake containing 500 grams or less of pyrotechnic composition, a multi-shot aerial repeater, is banned only above that 500-gram threshold, so it is a legal "division 1.4G common state approved explosive." Utah is counted among the broad-allow states above for that reason.
Local-option states: where your county or city decides
In seven states, state law does not itself set one statewide yes-or-no answer; it hands the decision to counties, boroughs, or municipalities. California is the best-known example: only State Fire Marshal-certified "safe and sane" fireworks are eligible at all, and even those may be sold or used only where the local city or county has not banned them, which is why many California cities ban fireworks entirely despite state law permitting the category. Hawaii's baseline is the strictest starting point of the seven: every category, aerial devices, articles pyrotechnic, consumer fireworks, and display fireworks, requires a state license, and counties layer their own ordinances (commonly permit systems tied to holidays such as Chinese New Year) on top, which must be at least as strict as the state chapter (Haw. Rev. Stat. §132D-17.5). Nevada has no general statewide legality statute at all; counties are expressly authorized to prohibit, restrict, or regulate sale, use, storage, and possession, with mandatory civil-penalty bands set at the county level: not less than $250 nor more than $1,000 for a violation under 100 pounds gross weight, $1,000 to $5,000 for 100 to 5,000 pounds, and $5,000 to $10,000 for more than 5,000 pounds (Nev. Rev. Stat. §244.367(1)(b)). Maine licenses sellers at the state level but requires a municipal permit too, where the municipality mandates one, and sets its own statewide use hours regardless (8 M.R.S. §223-A). New Hampshire's "permissible fireworks" are legal statewide by default, but each municipality may vote to prohibit permits, display, or possession within its own borders (N.H. RSA 160-C:6). New York allows "sparkling devices" through state-registered sellers unless a county enacts a local law prohibiting them, a power Penal Law §405.00(5)(b) gives to counties (and, under §405.00(5)(c), to any city wholly contained within Orange County) but not to New York City. New York City's stricter posture comes from a different statute: in cities with a population of one million or more, Penal Law §270.00(1)(c)(iv) excludes "sparkling devices" from the exemption entirely, so the whole device category the rest of the state can buy is unavailable there; the same section also expands "dangerous fireworks" to include sparklers over ten inches long or a quarter-inch in diameter, plus chasers, and removes the exemption that otherwise applies to sparkling devices lawfully bought in another jurisdiction.
Wyoming is the starkest of the seven. The statewide default is a full ban on sale, use, and discharge of fireworks. Consumer fireworks meeting the federal CPSC standard become legal only in a county that has affirmatively opted in, and opting in takes a citizen petition (signatures from at least 15 percent of votes cast in the preceding general election) followed by a successful county voter referendum; a failed referendum bars resubmitting a petition for 4 years (Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§35-10-205, 35-10-208).
Four states with a hybrid structure
Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, and Washington do not fit neatly into the broad-allow, novelty-only, or local-option categories above; each combines two of those mechanics in a single statute. Arizona starts from a general ban but carves out a statewide "permissible consumer fireworks" category sold at retail; the state itself sets no sale or use calendar, only the outer bounds a city, town, or county may narrow sale and use to. Florida defines sparklers and a list of novelties out of "fireworks" entirely, so they are legal year-round, while true fireworks (firecrackers, aerial devices) get a separate, narrow holiday-only exemption limited to New Year's Day, July 4, and New Year's Eve. Kentucky treats ordinary consumer fireworks as broadly legal statewide, but its broader "display fireworks" category defaults to banned unless a local official, a city fire chief or mayor, or a county judge-executive, affirmatively opts in. Washington allows a broad CPSC-compliant consumer-fireworks list but bans several named device classes outright, sky rockets, firecrackers, salutes, and chasers, regardless of DOT classification, on top of narrow statewide sale windows that run on a different calendar than the separate discharge windows. Check the table above and each state's own page for the specifics.
Recent legislative changes worth knowing
Several states changed their fireworks law within the last two years, enough that an older source can describe a rule that no longer applies. Oklahoma repealed its decades-old statewide ban on skyrockets with sticks (bottle rockets and stick rockets) and its fixed June and December retail sale windows, both effective May 20, 2026, under SB 1948 of 2026; licensed sellers may now sell fireworks year-round absent a local ordinance, and skyrockets with sticks are no longer separately prohibited by state law. Kansas widened its seasonal retail window from a 9-day regulatory period to June 20 through July 7, and let a permanent retailer sell consumer fireworks year-round, effective April 24, 2025, under K.S.A. §31-502(j) as amended by SB 199 of 2025; the standalone bottle-rocket ban under K.S.A. §31-507 was untouched by that amendment and remains in force. Mississippi widened its retail sale window by 37 days, to May 23 through July 12 and December 5 through January 9, and downgraded a fireworks-chapter violation from a felony to a misdemeanor, both effective July 1, 2025, under 2025 Miss. Laws ch. 417 (SB 2210). Arkansas moved its summer sale-window start date from June 20 to June 13 under 2025 Acts No. 108 (H.B. 1324), "An Act to Amend the Time of Permissible Sales of Fireworks in this State." Texas enacted two different, conflicting versions of its retail-sale-window statute (Occ. Code §2154.202(g)) in 2025 that were never reconciled into a single text; see the Texas row above and that state's own page for the unresolved conflict. A source that still describes Oklahoma's old skyrocket-with-sticks ban, Kansas's narrower pre-2025 window, Mississippi's felony penalty, or Arkansas's June 20 start date is describing the law as it stood before these 2025-2026 changes.
Crossing state lines with fireworks, and why you can't mail them
Buying fireworks legally in a neighboring state does not make it legal to bring them home if your own state bans or regulates them. It is a separate federal crime to transport fireworks into any state whose law specifically prohibits or regulates the use of fireworks, in violation of that law, or to deliver fireworks for that transportation knowing they will be delivered, possessed, or used in a way that law prohibits, except in the course of continuous interstate transportation through the state; the offense exempts common and contract carriers and water carriers engaged in interstate commerce, and transportation for the use of federal agencies, and carries no agricultural exception (18 U.S.C. §836). A violation is punishable by a fine, up to one year of imprisonment, or both. That exposure sits on top of, not instead of, whatever penalty the destination state's own law provides.
Mailing is a flatly separate problem, and it applies no matter what any state allows. The general federal nonmailable-matter statute bars explosives and similar hazardous materials from the mail (18 U.S.C. §1716), and USPS's own operating rules spell out exactly what that means for fireworks: "all types of fireworks are prohibited from mailing," a categorical rule under which USPS names Roman candles, skyrockets, fountains, firecrackers, salutes, and combinations of items designed to produce those effects as examples, not an exhaustive list (USPS Publication 52, §341.22). The section does not name sparklers specifically, but they fall within that "all types" language and are not carved out. A fireworks item legal to buy and use in every state involved is still illegal to put in the mail.
How fireworks penalties typically work
Penalties across the states in this comparison split into a recognizable pattern. Many states treat unlawful possession or use as a lesser offense, a misdemeanor, an infraction, or a flat civil fine: Delaware's is $25-$100, Arizona's is a $1,000 civil penalty, and Oregon's is a civil penalty up to $500 per violation, imposed by the State Fire Marshal, with each day counted as a separate violation. Unlicensed retail sale, manufacture, or bringing in a non-conforming device typically carries materially higher exposure: Louisiana's unpermitted-operation penalty reaches $10,000 and 6 months, and Rhode Island treats a larger-value unpermitted display or aerial-fireworks violation as a felony. Texas's felony exposure is narrower than it looks: Penal Code §50.02 only reaches fireworks ignited to interfere with or flee a law enforcement officer, not general unlawful use; ordinary Texas Chapter 2154 violations instead carry a Class B misdemeanor under Occupations Code §2154.303 (a narrower Class C misdemeanor applies to specific low-damage location violations), and only a flame-effects or proximate-pyrotechnics violation before 50 or more people steps up to a Class A misdemeanor under §2154.253(e). Wisconsin is an outlier worth naming on its own: standard violations there are handled through a civil forfeiture system rather than a criminal penalty, though manufacturing without the required state license is a felony. A retail warning sign is not always proof of the current penalty, either: Colorado's mandatory sign still quotes a $750 fine and 6-month jail term that predate a March 2022 statewide reclassification; the real ceiling now is $300 and 10 days. Because the range across states is this wide, a specific figure only means something attached to a specific state; check the table above and that state's own page rather than assuming a single national number.
Fireworks are one of several seasonal, everyday-law topics covered on this site. Open container laws address a related summer-driving statute. Outside the United States, see UK fireworks law and Australian fireworks laws.
Disclaimer: This article provides general legal information about fireworks laws in the United States as of September 2026. It is not legal advice. Fireworks statutes, local ordinances, sale and use windows, and penalties change frequently and are often further restricted by county or city ordinance beyond what state law requires. Verify the current rule for your specific city and county before buying, selling, or using fireworks, and consult a lawyer licensed in your state for advice about a specific situation.
Statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-09-18. Last updated: 2026-09-18.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are M-80s and cherry bombs illegal everywhere?
Yes, federally, no matter what any state allows. Federal regulation bans any device that produces an audible effect using more than 2 grains (130 milligrams) of pyrotechnic composition, the category that covers cherry bombs, M-80s, and silver salutes (16 CFR 1500.17(a)(3)). A state cannot make these legal because the ban operates at the federal level as a banned hazardous substance.
Can I bring home fireworks I bought legally in another state?
Not if your home state's law prohibits or regulates the use of fireworks. Transporting fireworks into a state whose law specifically prohibits or regulates them, or delivering them for that transportation, knowing they will be delivered, possessed, or used in a way that state law prohibits, is a separate federal offense (18 U.S.C. 836), on top of whatever penalty your home state's own law provides.
What is the difference between consumer and display fireworks?
Consumer fireworks (DOT Class 1.4G) are the CPSC-regulated category sold to the public and must meet federal construction, chemical-composition, and labeling standards; importing, distributing, and storing them is exempt from ATF's explosives-licensing rules (27 CFR 555.141(a)(7)), though manufacturing consumer fireworks still requires an ATF license. Display fireworks (DOT Class 1.3G) are a higher-hazard category classified as explosive materials: making, importing, distributing, or receiving them requires an ATF license or permit (27 CFR 555.11, 555.26, 555.41), and they're shot by state-licensed operators at supervised public displays. The two are also treated differently under federal explosives-storage distance rules.
Can you mail fireworks?
No. USPS Publication 52 states that all types of fireworks are prohibited from mailing, naming roman candles, skyrockets, fountains, firecrackers, and salutes as examples (USPS Pub. 52, §341.22). The section does not name sparklers individually, but they are fireworks and fall within that categorical "all types" language.
What is a "safe and sane" firework?
It's a state-law term, not a federal one, generally meaning a state-fire-marshal-certified, ground-based, non-aerial, non-explosive subset of consumer fireworks. It has no single national meaning; each state that uses a category like this (California's "safe and sane" list is the best-known example) defines its own list of qualifying devices.
Are sparklers legal in my state?
It depends on the state. Most of the 14 novelty-only states (see above) build their entire legal category around sparklers and similar ground-based devices, often with a weight cap per item. But sparklers are not automatically the safest, most-permitted option everywhere: Massachusetts bans sparklers along with every other consumer firework, and even some broad-allow and local-option states impose their own limits on sparkler length, composition, or sale location. Check the comparison table above and your state's own page for the specific rule.
Updates
Independently fact-checked against the cited primary sources
Sources and References
- 16 CFR 1507.1 (Scope) and 16 CFR 1507.3 (Fuses)(ecfr.gov).gov
- 16 CFR 1500.17 (Banned hazardous substances: fireworks devices)(law.cornell.edu)
- CPSC Business Guidance: Fireworks (fuse burn time, UN/DOT classification caveat)(cpsc.gov).gov
- 27 CFR 555.11 (Definitions: display fireworks, consumer fireworks, articles pyrotechnic)(govinfo.gov).gov
- 27 CFR 555.26 and 555.41 (License or permit required to manufacture, import, distribute, or receive/transport explosive materials, incl. display fireworks)(law.cornell.edu)
- 27 CFR 555.141(a)(7) (importation, distribution, and storage of consumer fireworks (UN0336/UN0337) and articles pyrotechnic (UN0431/UN0432) exempt from Part 555 licensing; manufacture is NOT exempt)(law.cornell.edu)
- 27 CFR 555.222 (Table of distances between fireworks process buildings)(ecfr.gov).gov
- 18 U.S.C. § 836 (Transportation of fireworks into a state prohibiting or regulating their use)(uscode.house.gov).gov
- 18 U.S.C. § 1716 (Nonmailable explosives and other dangerous articles)(law.cornell.edu)
- USPS Publication 52, § 341.22 ("All types of fireworks are prohibited from mailing"), the section page itself(pe.usps.com).gov
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 148, § 39 (sale, possession, and use of fireworks prohibited)(malegislature.gov).gov
- Minn. Stat. § 624.20 (fireworks definitions and novelty exclusions)(revisor.mn.gov).gov
- Haw. Rev. Stat. § 132D-17.5 (county ordinances not superseded)(capitol.hawaii.gov).gov
- Nev. Rev. Stat. § 244.367 (county regulatory authority; tiered civil-penalty bands, $250-$10,000 by gross weight)(leg.state.nv.us).gov
- N.H. RSA 160-C:6 (local-option voting mechanism)(gc.nh.gov).gov
- N.Y. Penal Law § 405.00 (county, and Orange-County-city, local-option to prohibit sparkling devices)(legislation.nysenate.gov).gov
- N.Y. Penal Law § 270.00 (NYC's stricter "dangerous fireworks" definition and sparkling-devices penalty ladder in cities of 1M+ population)(legislation.nysenate.gov).gov
- Utah Code § 53-7-225 (sale and discharge windows, hours, and infraction penalty)(le.utah.gov).gov
- Tex. Occ. Code § 2154.202 (statewide and county-optional sale windows, incl. the expired one-time July 5, 2026 window under (g-1))(statutes.capitol.texas.gov).gov
- 425 ILCS 35/1 (Illinois novelty-item exclusions from "consumer fireworks": sparklers, snakes, smoke devices, trick noisemakers, small toy caps)(ilga.gov).gov
- Wis. Stat. § 167.10(1) (length-and-grain novelty exemptions: 36-inch sparklers, quarter-grain caps, etc.)(docs.legis.wisconsin.gov).gov
- N.D. Cent. Code § 23-15-01 to § 23-15-06 (licensed retail sale of enumerated consumer fireworks, age 12+, sale/use windows, and Class B misdemeanor penalty)(ndlegis.gov).gov
- Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 35-10-205, 35-10-208 (county opt-in petition and referendum)(wyoleg.gov).gov
- 8 M.R.S. § 223-A (Maine licensed-seller/municipal-permit regime and use hours)(legislature.maine.gov).gov
- K.S.A. 31-502(j) ("seasonal retailer" definition, as amended by L. 2025, ch. 80, Sec. 3 / SB 199, eff. Apr. 24, 2025: seasonal retail sale season set at June 20 through July 7; permanent retailer may sell year-round)(ksrevisor.gov).gov
- Okla. Stat. tit. 68, section 1623 and 1624 (as amended by Laws 2026, SB 1948, eff. May 20, 2026: repealed the fixed June/December retail sale windows and the skyrocket-with-sticks ban)(oscn.net).gov
- Miss. Code Ann. section 45-13-9, as amended eff. 2025-07-01 by 2025 Miss. Laws ch. 417 (SB 2210): retail sale window widened to May 23-July 12 and Dec 5-Jan 9(billstatus.ls.state.ms.us).gov
- Utah Code section 53-7-202(6) ("division 1.4G dangerous explosive" definition: firecrackers, skyrockets, missile-type rockets, aerial shells, bottle rockets, and Roman candles are banned from public possession, discharge, sale, or purchase)(le.utah.gov).gov
- Colo. Rev. Stat. section 18-1.3-503(1.5) (current $300 fine / 10-day jail ceiling for a petty offense on or after March 1, 2022; the older $750/6-month figures printed on the mandatory retail warning sign predate this reclassification)(law.justia.com)
- Arkansas 2025 Acts No. 108 (H.B. 1324, "An Act to Amend the Time of Permissible Sales of Fireworks in this State"): moved the summer sale-window start date from June 20 to June 13(arkleg.state.ar.us).gov