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New York Penal - Article 270 - § 270.00 Unlawfully Dealing With Fireworks and Dangerous Fireworks

Legal Research Home > New York Laws > Penal > New York Penal - Article 270 - § 270.00 Unlawfully Dealing With Fireworks and Dangerous Fireworks

 
  § 270.00  Unlawfully dealing with fireworks and dangerous fireworks.
    1.    Definition  of  "fireworks"  and "dangerous fireworks". The term
  "fireworks," as used in this section, is defined and declared to be  and
  to include any blank cartridge, blank cartridge pistol, or toy cannon in
  which  explosives are used, firecrackers, sparklers or other combustible
  or explosive of like construction, or  any  preparation  containing  any
  explosive  or  inflammable  compound  or  any  tablets  or  other device
  commonly used and sold  as  fireworks  containing  nitrates,  chlorates,
  oxalates,   sulphides  of  lead,  barium,  antimony,  arsenic,  mercury,
  nitroglycerine, phosphorus or any compound containing any of the same or
  other explosives, or any substance  or  combination  of  substances,  or
  article  prepared  for  the purpose of producing a visible or an audible
  effect by combustion, explosion, deflagration or  detonation,  or  other
  device  containing  any  explosive  substance  and  the  term "dangerous
  fireworks" means any  fireworks  capable  of  causing  serious  physical
  injury and which are: firecrackers containing more than fifty milligrams
  of  any explosive substance, torpedoes, skyrockets and rockets including
  all devices which employ any  combustible  or  explosive  substance  and
  which  rise in the air during discharge, Roman candles, bombs, sparklers
  more than ten inches in length or one-fourth of one inch in diameter, or
  chasers including all devices which dart or travel about the surface  of
  the  ground  during  discharge.    "Fireworks" and "dangerous fireworks"
  shall not be deemed to include (1) flares of the type used by  railroads
  or  any  warning lights commonly known as red flares, or marine distress
  signals of a type approved by the United States coast guard or  (2)  toy
  pistols,  toy  canes,  toy  guns  or  other  devices in which paper caps
  containing twenty-five hundredths grains or less of  explosive  compound
  are used, providing they are so constructed that the hand cannot come in
  contact  with  the  cap when in place for use, and toy pistol paper caps
  which contain less than twenty-hundredths grains of  explosive  mixture,
  the  sale  and use of which shall be permitted at all times, or (3) bank
  security devices which contain not more than fifty grams of any compound
  or substance or any combination thereof, together with  an  igniter  not
  exceeding  0.2  gram, capable of producing a lachrymating and/or visible
  or audible effect, where such device is stored or used  only  by  banks,
  national  banking  associations, trust companies, savings banks, savings
  and loan associations, industrial banks, or credit  unions,  or  by  any
  manufacturer,  wholesaler,  dealer,  jobber  or  common carrier for such
  devices and where the total storage on any one premises does not  exceed
  one hundred devices.
    2.    Offense.    (a)   Except as herein otherwise provided, or except
  where a permit is obtained pursuant to section 405.00;  (i)  any  person
  who  shall  offer or expose for sale, sell or furnish,  any fireworks or
  dangerous fireworks is guilty of a class B misdemeanor;
    (ii) any person who shall offer or expose for sale,  sell  or  furnish
  any  fireworks  or dangerous fireworks valued at five hundred dollars or
  more shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor;
    (b) (i)  Except as herein otherwise stated, or except where  a  permit
  is  obtained  pursuant  to section 405.00, any person who shall possess,
  use, explode or cause to explode any fireworks or dangerous fireworks is
  guilty of a violation.
    (ii)  A person who shall offer or expose for sale,  sell  or  furnish,
  any  dangerous  fireworks to any person who is under the age of eighteen
  is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
    (iii) A person who has previously been convicted  of  a  violation  of
  subparagraph  (ii) of this paragraph within the preceding five years and
  who shall offer or expose for  sale,  sell  or  furnish,  any  dangerous

  fireworks  to  any  person  who  is  under the age of eighteen, shall be
  guilty of a class E felony.
    (c)  Possession  of  fireworks  or dangerous fireworks valued at fifty
  dollars or more shall be a presumption that such fireworks were intended
  to be offered or exposed for sale.
    3.  The provisions of this section shall not apply to articles of  the
  kind  and  nature herein mentioned, while in possession of railroads and
  transportation agencies for the  purpose  of  transportation  to  points
  without  the  state,  the  shipment  of  which  is not prohibited by the
  interstate commerce commission regulations as formulated  and  published
  from time to time, unless the same be held voluntarily by such railroads
  or  transportation  companies  as  warehousemen  for  delivery to points
  within the state; provided, that none of the provisions of this  section
  shall  apply  to  signaling  devices used by railroad companies or motor
  vehicles referred to in subdivision seventeen of section  three  hundred
  seventy-five  of  the vehicle and traffic law, or to high explosives for
  blasting or similar purposes; provided that none of  the  provisions  of
  this section shall apply to fireworks or dangerous fireworks and the use
  thereof  by  the  army  and  navy  departments  of the state and federal
  government; nor shall anything in this act  contained  be  construed  to
  prohibit   any   manufacturer,   wholesaler,   dealer   or  jobber  from
  manufacturing, possessing or selling  at  wholesale  such  fireworks  or
  dangerous fireworks to municipalities, religious or civic organizations,
  fair  associations, amusement parks, or other organizations or groups of
  individuals  authorized  to  possess  and  use  fireworks  or  dangerous
  fireworks  under  this act, or the sale or use of blank cartridges for a
  show or theatre, or for signal purposes in athletic sports, or  for  dog
  trials  or  dog  training, or the use, or the storage, transportation or
  sale for use of fireworks or dangerous fireworks in the preparation  for
  or  in connection with television broadcasts; nor shall anything in this
  act contained be construed to prohibit the manufacture of  fireworks  or
  dangerous  fireworks, nor the sale of any kind of fireworks or dangerous
  fireworks, provided the same are to  be  shipped  directly  out  of  the
  state.
    4.    Sales  of ammunition not prohibited.   Nothing contained in this
  section shall be construed to prevent, or interfere in any way with, the
  sale of ammunition for revolvers or pistols of any kind, or for  rifles,
  shot  guns,  or other arms, belonging or which may belong to any persons
  whether as sporting or hunting weapons or for the purpose of  protection
  to them in their homes, or, as they may go abroad; and manufacturers are
  authorized  to  continue  to manufacture, and wholesalers and dealers to
  continue to deal in and freely to sell ammunition to  all  such  persons
  for such purposes.
    5.    Notwithstanding  the  provisions  of  subdivision  four  of this
  section, it shall be unlawful for any dealer in  firearms  to  sell  any
  ammunition  designed  exclusively for use in a pistol or revolver to any
  person, not authorized to possess a pistol or revolver.   The  violation
  of this section shall constitute a class B misdemeanor.

Last modified: February 17, 2012