Promoter says new rules put damper on fireworks displays

An Iowa promoter who puts on fireworks shows says there’s a problem getting the entertaining explosives. Don Lantis handles pyrotechnic displays for cities, festivals and parties.He explains this isn’t “the stuff sold at the stands,” or Class C fireworks, which can be shipped by train as always, but his display fireworks must now be hauled by trucking company. Most fireworks are still made in China and shipped from overseas, but Lantis says there are new security rules on how they can be transported to the Midwest. He says every trucker who handles it, even just members of a driving team, must have an FBI background check. Lantis says a railroad would have to do background checks on every one of its hundreds or thousands of employees, and that’s out of the question, so the rail companies won’t ship the big “display” fireworks any more. While Homeland Security is a good idea, he says we’re “psyching ourselves out.” Lantis runs a couple retail fireworks stands on the South Dakota side of the border right across from Iowa, but says staging the big fireworks displays is a big part of his business and it’s gotten hard to get the supplies.