Transporting Fireworks
For the most part, you
can legally drive with fireworks in your car as long as you have
less than 1000 pounds. If you have more than 1000 pounds your
vehicle has to be placarded (specified signs on the outside of the
vehicle). If you are driving through a state where fireworks are
illegal, it is supposed
to be OK as long as your destination is another state where
fireworks are legal. Of course there will always be local
authorities who won't know this, or will disagree with this, and may
try to confiscate your fireworks. This happens sometimes at state
lines, if fireworks are illegal in one of the states. It's
nonsense. As long as your final destination is a place where
fireworks are legal, and you can prove that's where your destination
is. The law is on your side. But...
Every year, the problem of temporary border check points comes up.
Some officers in some states where fireworks are illegal, but a
neighboring state sells fireworks legally, seem to think it is their
duty to set up a roadblock at the state line and stop all cars and
check for fireworks being brought in. The constitutionality of this
type of search is doubtful, especially since a recent Supreme Court
ruling regarding car searches and seizures. But try arguing the
constitution with a bespectacled, grumpy, overweight officer
standing there at a state line with a gun in his holster. Your best
bet, if you know there are going to be roadblocks, is to shop very
early in the season before they set up these roadblocks. If you wait
until late June or July to make your purchases, you might be driving
into a trap. Try an alternate route to cross the state line which
may not have a blockade.
You cannot take fireworks on commercial airlines in the United
States, period. Not in checked baggage, not carry-on baggage, not on
your person. No fireworks, period. Not even a pack of firecrackers,
not even a few sparklers. Don't bring fireworks to an airport or
attempt to hide them in your luggage, not even a small quantity.
This is not new - this has been the rule for many years.
For the past few years, people are saying things like, they brought
home an interesting pack of firecrackers or a box of sparklers from
some foreign country or even within the United States, and it was
well hidden in their luggage, and they "got away with it." Don't do
it: The possible legal penalties are severe, not to mention the fact
that you would be compromising the safety of the flight.
What if you're in some faraway, exotic place in the world, and you
get some rare, unusual, beautiful pack of firecrackers that nobody
at home has ever seen, or even heard of? Resist the temptation to
put that pack in your suitcase. Carefully remove the paper label
from the pack, and just take the paper label home with you. Leave
the actual firecrackers behind and forget them. The label alone will
have some value to collectors.
Also, you cannot ship fireworks by air courier services such as
FedEx and many others. You can not mail fireworks through the U.S.
Post Office in any way. They do not accept fireworks. UPS does Dot
accept fireworks either. The only way to send fireworks in the U.S.
is by private, commercial trucking lines and transportation services
that will accept fireworks and not all will. Fireworks should never
travel by air at anytime, in any country. They should only travel by
surface means (car, truck, rail, or boat).