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Massachusetts

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Massachusetts

This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to Massachusetts. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the colonial and provincial periods through statehood to the present.

  • Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
  • Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, armory and manufacturing records (e.g., Springfield Armory and industrial corridor), militia and maritime archives, and oral histories tied to Massachusetts people and places.
  • Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.

Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.

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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Item type:Item,
    Revised Ordinances of 1892 of the City of Boston 115 (1895)
    (1895)
    § 91: No person shall manufacture or sell, or expose for sale, any guncotton, nitro-glycerine, or any compounds of the same, nor any fulminate or substance, except gunpowder, intended to be used by exploding or igniting it, in order to produce a force to propel missiles, or to rend substances apart, except in accordance with a permit from the board of fire commissioners; nor shall any person send or carry through the public streets any such substance, except in the manner and in the quantities allowed by statute or ordinance.
  • Item type:Item,
    The Revised Ordinances of 1885 of the City of Boston 172 (1886)§
    (1885)
    Ordinances of the City of Boston. Of Fire-Arms, Bonfires, and Brick-Kilns. § 4: No person shall sell to any child under the age of sixteen years without the written consent of a parent or guardian of such child, any cartridge or fixed ammunition of which any fulminate is a component part, or any gun, pistol, or other mechanical contrivance arranged for the explosion of such cartridge, or of any fulminate. But the provisions of this section shall not apply to paper caps of which the only component parts are chlorate of potash and sulphide of antimony, nor to any appliance for exploding the same. The provisions of this section shall be inserted in every license granted for the sale of gunpowder.
  • Item type:Item,
    Annual Report of the Park Department, Boston Department of Parks 86 (1887)
    (1886)
    Park Ordinances, § 3: Prohibited carry of firearms, throwing stones, or other missiles within the parks of the city.
  • Item type:Item,
    City of Boston Department of Parks, Twelfth Annual Report of Board of Commissioners for 1886, at 86 (1887)
    (1887)
    § 3: Prohibits the discharge or carry of firearms. Also prohibited the discharge of fireworks, playing of musical instruments, possession of intoxicating beverages, "or otherwise annoy other visitors" within the parks of Boston.
  • Item type:Item,
    1783 Mass. Acts 218-219
    (1783)
    An Act in Addition to the several Acts already made for the prudent Storage of Gun-Powder within the Town of Boston, ch. XIII: Created a fine of ten pounds for individuals creating the fire hazard of having a loaded cannon, swivel, mortar, howitzer, cohorn, firearm loaded with gun powder, bomb, grenade, or other iron-shell in a dwelling house.
  • Item type:Item,
    Thomas Wetmore, The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Boston 116-117 (1834)
    (1826)
    An ordinance forbidding the firing of Guns, prohibiting Fireworks in certain cases, and to prevent damage by fire, § 1: That no person shall fire or discharge any gun, fowling piece, or fire arms within the limits of the city, which shall be loaded with balls or shot, or with powder only, under a penalty for every such offence, of a sum not less than one dollar nor more than twenty dollars: Provided, however, that the provisions of this section shall not extend to the firing of any gun or other fire arm, in the lawful defense of the person, family, or property of any citizen; nor to the firing of any such gun or fire arm at any military exercise or reviews.
  • Item type:Item,
    Thomas Wetmore, The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Boston 142-43 (1834)
    (1783)
    §§ 1-2: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled and by the authority of the same, That if any person shall take into any dwelling house, stable, barn, out house, ware house, store, shop or other building within the town of Boston, any cannon, swivel, mortar, howitzer, cohorn, or fire arm, loaded with or having gunpowder in the same, or shall receive into any dwelling house, stable, barn, out house, store, ware house, shop, or other building within said town, any bomb, grenade, or other iron shell, charged with, or having gun powder in the same, such person shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten pounds, to be recovered at the suit of the firewards [duties of Firewards transferred to Engineers,] of the said towns, in an action of debt before any court proper to try the same; one moiety thereof, to the use of said Firewards, and the other moiety to the support of the poor of said town of Bost