Kansas could allow fireworks to be sold year-round under proposed bill

Kansas lawmakers are considering allowing fireworks to be sold year round and repealing a ban on bottle rockets.

Under the proposed bill, retailers would be allowed to sell fireworks every day of the year.

Seasonal retailers, who temporarily sell fireworks around Independence Day, would get an extension. Kansas law allows those retailers to start selling fireworks on June 27, but the proposed bill would push it back a week. The sales period would run from June 20 to July 5.

The use of bottle rockets in Kansas is a crime under state law. But the bill as written would make it legal.

Small business owners say if the bill passes, business would improve exponentially due to the extended sale time.

Brent Aiello, who owns Aiello Fireworks in Moran, about 30 miles from the Missouri line, told the Senate State and Federal Affairs Committee Thursday morning that most consumers go to Missouri to buy fireworks, instead of waiting another seven days to purchase in the state. Missouri law allows seasonal retailers to start selling from June 20 till July 10 every year, then again from Dec. 20 till Jan. 2 for New Year’s Day.

“That means a Kansan is leaving our state and spending money in Missouri, when they should be spending it here in Kansas,” Aiello said.

Doug Jorgensen, Kansas State Fire Marshal, in a written statement to the committee said it would “add very little duties and responsibilities” to the office’s current workload if the sales period were extended for both seasonal retailers and annual retailers.

But the office will remain neutral on the bill, he wrote, as long as the bottle rocket ban continues due to the “increased fire probability that they would bring.”

The Kansas Fireworks Association supported extending the amount of time firework retailers are on sale, but not repealing the bottle rocket ban. A representative from the association, Philip Bradley, told senators the bill should be amended to keep the ban in place.

Under the proposed bill, cities and counties would still be able to regulate fireworks sales further.

Sen. Bud Estes, a Dodge City Republican and chair of the committee, said the committee would work on the bill on Monday or Tuesday.

This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 5:33 PM.