Legality of Fireworks? Lack of Enforcement? (Penn: home, live in, law)

[CHS89]

What are you talking about? If they're illegal for a PA resident to buy, then they're illegal to sell in PA, plain and simple. And if they're illegal to sell in PA, then there are not tents on the side of the road offering them for sale.

You saw no such sign in Pennsylvania saying NO PA PEOPLE ALLOWED.

[Summering]

Originally Posted by CHS89

What are you talking about? If they're illegal for a PA resident to buy, then they're illegal to sell in PA, plain and simple. And if they're illegal to sell in PA, then there are not tents on the side of the road offering them for sale.

You saw no such sign in Pennsylvania saying NO PA PEOPLE ALLOWED.

Excuse me " I did not see what!"...........I do not have a reason to lie.
I said.........Yes, on some places that have things we "are not allowed to buy" there is signs saying .........PA residence not allowed in.....
This was on the front pages last year, and it was a big family joke about the circumstances.....The front pages showed the signs.
There are a ton of tents..........and we always wonder why..........
If I had a spare moment I'd post you a picture of a sign........
Unless, a particular TENT has only the little poppin' stuff......
I've seen plenty a sign tellin' me I can not purchase.........but..........this year I didn't even try to go....... It is unbelieveable I agree, but, start at the first post and read on we all are in wonder of whats .......what. It has been an interesting thing to watch for years, and quite discused in the local papers ...but, not so much this year.

[Summering]

.......I looked up a good quote to answer this question. This comes from columnist Lou Sessenger of the Intelligencer and of Phillyburb.com........
He states, and I quote......" A retailer called Sky King in Easton and Morrisville Pa warns........."It does not permit Pa residents IN OUR PA SHOWROOMS" without a permit." ( please read again, does NOT permit PA residents IN OUR SHOWROOM)
He goes on to say " It is illegal to purchase fireworks in Pa if you live in Pa, but it is perfectly legal to buy fireworks in Pa if you don't live in Pa."
Going on to say " Anything airborne or exploding needs a special permit"
This is just one example to set the story straight.
And to please note........I love fireworks, think they are grand and with good safety measures.......by adults......think we all should be able to hold our family picnics and enjoy.........Jerseyites are having a blast thanks to Pa. fireworks law (phillyBurbs.com) | Lou Sessinger

[CHS89]

I stand corrected. A little. My apologies. I must.....have..........had a....hard time......reading your.........post.

The tents along the highway that are seen en masse sell legal Class C (or (broken link) 1.4g (broken link)) fireworks that any 18 year old or over Pennsylvanian may buy which do not require a permit. I've done it before in the past, and expect to do so again tomorrow with no issues. Many grocery and convenient type stores sell similar items. Whether they check residency is uncertain, although they should be it appears. They are not Sky King, which is what you are talking about. Sky King does, apparently, sell fireworks which are illegal for a Pennsylvania resident to purchase without a valid permit. It's an odd distinction to be sure, but a PA resident may enter (broken link)with the verified permit in hand, purchase, and display them. How they manage to procure a signed permit is another story, but I'm not interested enough to research it. Their target client seems to be the pyrotechnic companies that shoot off fireworks at the game, or fire company picnic, or whatever.

If you were able to exploit a loophole and your out of state friends could make the purchase, that's fine, and perfectly legal, and good for you. You're breaking the law, however, if none of you have a permit to display them in Pennsylvania but do so anyway, or if you try to bring them into NJ. That's a NJ issue, though. As I mentioned upthread, the chances of a cop busting your barbecue because of it is likely pretty slim unless you're causing a disturbance and your shells are raining down into the neighbors yards for the better part of an hour.

[Summering]

Originally Posted by CHS89

I stand corrected. A little. My apologies. I must.....have..........had a....hard time......reading your.........post.

The tents along the highway that are seen en masse sell legal Class C (or 1.4g) fireworks that any 18 year old or over Pennsylvanian may buy which do not require a permit. I've done it before in the past, and expect to do so again tomorrow with no issues. Many grocery and convenient type stores sell similar items. Whether they check residency is uncertain, although they should be it appears. They are not Sky King, which is what you are talking about. Sky King does, apparently, sell fireworks which are illegal for a Pennsylvania resident to purchase without a valid permit. It's an odd distinction to be sure, but a PA resident may enter with the verified permit in hand, purchase, and display them. How they manage to procure a signed permit is another story, but I'm not interested enough to research it. Their target client seems to be the pyrotechnic companies that shoot off fireworks at the game, or fire company picnic, or whatever.

If you were able to exploit a loophole and your out of state friends could make the purchase, that's fine, and perfectly legal, and good for you. You're breaking the law, however, if none of you have a permit to display them in Pennsylvania but do so anyway, or if you try to bring them into NJ. That's a NJ issue, though. As I mentioned upthread, the chances of a cop busting your barbecue because of it is likely pretty slim unless you're causing a disturbance and your shells are raining down into the neighbors yards for the better part of an hour.

Thank You........sorry you couldn't understand me. In regular letters I don't use these pauses.........such as this.........but, online I find it a habit.
I do know correct english writing, but it aludes me whilst using the keyboard.
Happy Fireworks to you

[ScranBarre]

Thanks for the great, lively discussion everyone, and, most importantly, for keeping this civil (which I know can be challenging to some of us at times! LOL!)

I'm in no way opposed to people wanting to have fun and enjoy the holiday, but I just don't see why our tax dollars are being used so that politicians can sit on their derrieres and construct legislation that they know ahead of time will never be enforceable. As CHS89 correctly pointed out with his examples of non-turn signal users, non-seatbelt-wearers, etc., it would be impossible for the police to keep everyone who offends our laws in-check.

I can also sympathize with ConorsDad. Here it is 11 PM, and Pittston still sounds like a Civil War battlefield. Considering I had to arise this morning at 4:30 AM for work, I'm looking forward to getting some shut-eye soon. I can only hope and pray that my rich yahoo neighbors can have enough consideration to keep the noise to a minimum after midnight to permit me to catch up on a lot of lost sleep before heading into work tomorrow. I just pulled into the driveway a half-hour ago to see a group of about 6-8 of them standing in the middle of the street setting off a large sparkler of sorts and staring into it like some sort of creepy "Children of the Corn" scene. LOL! I'm all for letting people have fun, but not everyone in Pittston is wealthy enough to be able to take days off around the holiday to screw around, and I hope they'll have common courtesy to let the rest of us SLEEP!

[NYRangers 2008]

Paul and connorsdad I couldn't agree with you guys anymore. I like fireworks in a controlled environment. Not when yahoos set them off just for the sake of making noise. I don't know what satisfaction these people get, but its sick. Here in my neighborhood in West Side, they started a few days before the 4Th and it's still going on now, the day after. I mean come on. Enough is enough. It doesn't make you any more patriotic to shoot off fireworks. These people just don't know when to stop. I wish the police would enforce this more. And another thing. I see the class of people who shoot these things off. They live in these homes that are unkept and prob. don't make a lot of money by the looks of things, but they have hundreds of dollars to buy fireworks. Like Paul said, I'm all for people having fun, but there should be a time when people know enough to stop and respect other people.

[Summering]

Actually, my very good neighbors, in quite swell looking( homes) and very, very neat surroundings, had a great time with sending the fireworks up, HIGH in the air. These were just fantatic ones........Or.........
Was it you guys pulling my strings?.......

[ecam222]

I could care less if I never see or hear another firework. For me, the thrill has been long gone...like when I was a kid. Keep it small and contained for the KIDS somewhere. Everyone trys to out-do the other guy. I'd take a good thunder and lightening storm over that anyday. The laws are ridiculous too, along with all these stores and pop-up tents. Like Matamoras really needed another big and ugly fireworks store. It's bad enough we have the ugly cigarette stores. Yeah, those stores really serve the needs of the people. Way to go township people.

[Retired Law 08]

Originally Posted by cjseliga

Growing up in the Abingtons, I saw people throw 4th of July backyard parties and bring in "professionals" for their firework displays. I think that they get permits from the township or borough to allow them to set off these displays. I realize this is probably a small percentage of the ones you see and everyone else is breaking the law, but it's probably not high on their list of offences for police to try and arrest and/or fine people for this. Like everything else, if there were dozens of people killed and injuried in NEPA each year from illegal fireworks, then the police might crack down on it.

They do get permits,I go to my friends house every year at the falls and one of the neighbors puts on a fantastic fireworks display,and he has a permit.