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State and local laws regarding fireworks change frequently, I must refer you to the web site of the American Pyrotechnics Association for the latest information on the state you are interested in. Go to this page and click on the state you are interested in. You will be presented with a PDF file, in Adobe PDF format, which you can save to your disk and open with any program that can read and display PDF files. That PDF file will provide a summary of what is legal in that state. If you want more detaled information, you can write to the "Enforcing Authority" for that state, and the address is included in that PDF file.

Keep in mind that most states allow individual counties, cities and townships to have their own laws which are more restrictive than the state fireworks laws. For example, a city or county might ban fireworks completely, or allow only some types that the state allows (such as allowing only ground items while the state allows some or all aerial items in addition to the ground items), or restrict the dates and times fireworks can be sold or used (where a state might allow sales during a certain range of dates, a city may allow a shorter selling period, etc.) So the local laws must also be considered in addition to the state laws. Counties, cities and townships are not allowed to pass laws that are less restrictive than the state laws (for example, a city may not allow aerial items if the state doesn't, or allow sales all year if the state doesn't, etc.).

The general classifications of fireworks in the United States are discussed at this page.

The regulations shown below are at the U.S. federal level. They are nominally contained in the Code of Federal Regulations at 49 CFR 173.56(j)(1). However, that regulation "incorporates by reference" a document called APA Standard 87-1, which is maintained and published by the American Pyrotechnics Association. That document is rarely seen by the public, but I suppose if you write to the APA you can obtain a copy. To the best of my knowlege, it was last updated in 2001, but I am not a member of the APA so I am unable to keep up with all the latest changes in that area. The information below is he latest I was able to find, but it is not necessarily the absolute latest version of it. If you really need the specfics, you could write a letter to the APA, at P.O. Box 30438, Bethesda, MD 20824, and ask them what is required to obtain a copy of APA Standard 87-1.

In addition to the specifications, some testing is done on fireworks devices before they are approved for sale in the U.S. Testing the device for "thermal stability" by keeping the device in a controlled temperature environment at 167 degrees (F) for 48 hours is one of the tests. The chemical composition of the device must be specified by the manufacturer and sometimes a chemical analysis is made, and sometimes a controversial "tip test" is performed on the device to see how likely or unlikely it is to tip over during use. It used to be performed on a piece of foam rubber at a certain angle, but I'm not sure how they do it now. Different tests are performed by different agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Customs, and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The most recent version that I could find of the standards lists these as the limits of pyrotechnic composition that each general type of firework can have and still be classified as 1.4G Consumer Fireworks in the United States. This information may or may not be current!