Fireworks stores in the Garden City Beach area were stocking up Tuesday in anticipation of the revellers flocking to buy "Pyro Man" artillery shells, "Call to Arms" displays or "Mighty Midgets" to set off along the oceanfront.

In neighboring Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach, selling and setting off fireworks is illegal. But it's different in Garden City Beach and the rest of unincorporated Horry County, where 19 fireworks shops do business.

On county land, places such as Dynamite Fireworks can offer "The Big Bang," a 6-foot-tall package of fireworks that claims the "maximum charge allowed by law" and retails for $1,000.

Tuesday, critics of fireworks received new power to control the noise. Horry County passed a law allowing private property owners to ban fireworks on their land and on adjacent public land.

"You can declare your property a prohibited zone, and you can extend it to the low water line on the public beach," County Public Safety Director Paul Whitten said.

The law is a major step for the county, which was finally granted some power over fireworks regulation by the state. Still, many criticize the General Assembly for only allowing a weak law that will be difficult to enforce.

The sponsor of the state legislation, Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach, said he worked for years to persuade the legislature to allow counties to pass such laws. Despite opposition to regulation from a powerful fireworks lobby in Columbia, the final state legislation was a good compromise that gives residents a new property right, he said.

Jim Evans, who works as a sales clerk at Dynamite Fireworks, said the new law won't stop fireworks and will likely just put more pressure on local police.

"Police have better things to do than say 'We're going to arrest you for shooting off bottle rockets,'" Evans said.

County police have been under great pressure to keep up recent population growth.

"We have to prioritize all of our calls. Unfortunately, fireworks calls are a low priority," Police Chief Johnny Morgan said. "It is going to be a real tough thing to enforce."

Garden City Beach is considered a fireworks problem area by the county and may have a number of applications for property bans. That could be bad for several fireworks shops that depend on the Garden City Beach as a legal place to use their products, said Dawn Gascho, sales clerk at Mr. Fireworks on Kings Highway.

"If they banned all of them out in front of the campgrounds, I would say that would hurt [business] a lot," Gascho said.

In at least two beachfront communities, people are happy the law was passed.

Gene Crow, who lives in the Arcadia condominiums on Beach Club Drive, said he has lived on the oceanfront for years and fireworks always have been a problem.

"I think the fireworks issue is a very big public safety issue," Crow said. "It is also such a nuisance, we need to do what we can." Crow and another Arcadia resident urged the county to support the new regulations.

Ocean Creek, a community across from Barefoot Landing, also has been troubled by fireworks, resident Ed Bouknight said.

"I have a good quality of life until about 10 p.m. and then from 10 until 2 there is a problem," Bouknight said.

Only about 1 percent of the residents set off fireworks and it is unfair that the other 99 percent must put up with the noise, he said.

Councilman Howard Barnard said the prevalence of fireworks also is dangerous.

"Sooner or later, we are going to lose valuable property if we are not careful," Barnard said.

The law might be too weak to improve conditions for concerned residents, said Councilman Marion Foxworth, who opposed it.

"Its not that I don't understand their plight ... I just don't think this is a vehicle that can accomplish that," Foxworth said. "I think a year from now we are going to be in the same place."

Also, private property owners may not be legally able to ban fireworks on public beach property, said Councilman Paul Prince, who voted against the law.