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Massachusetts

Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/4129

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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Start date: 1800End date: 1848

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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Joseph Barlow Felt Osgood, The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Salem, Together with the Acts of the Legislature Relating to the City: Collated and Revised Pursuant to an Order of the City Council 67 (1853)
    (1847)
    § 18: No gun-cotton, or other substance prepared, like it, for explosion, shall be kept within the limits of such town or city, excepting under the regulations and penalties that were then applicable by law to gunpowder; and if it shall be considered necessary for public safety, they may restrict the quantity to be so kept to one-fifth of the weight of gunpowder allowed by law in each case provided for.
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    The Municipal Register, Containing the City Charter, with Rules and Orders of the City Council, Also the Ordinances, and a List of the Officers of the City of Roxbury, for 1848-49, at 58 (1848)
    (1848)
    An Ordinance To prevent unlawful and injurious practices in the streets and other public places in the city: Prohibited the discharge of any firearms within the city of Roxbury
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    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.
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    1814 Mass. Acts 464
    (1814)
    An Act in Addition to an Act, entitled "An Act to Provide for the Proof of Fire Arms, Manufactured within this Commonwealth," ch. 192, § 2: Requiring all musket barrels and pistol barrels, manufactured within this Commonwealth to be proved by the person appointed according to the provisions of an act . . . with a charge of powder equal in weight to the ball which fits the bore of the barrel to be proved.
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    1836 Mass. Rev. Stat. 750, ch. 134, § 16
    (1835)
    Prohibited the carry of a dirk, dagger, sword, pistol, or other offensive and dangerous weapon without reasonable cause to fear assault, injury, or violence to oneself, their family, or property. Violators required to post a surety not exceeding six months.
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    1806 Mass. Acts 121-22
    (1806)
    An Act Providing for the Punishment of the Crimes of Burglary, and Other Breaking and Entering of Buildings: 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, with intent to kill, rob, steal, commit a rape, or to do or perpetrate any other felony, shall in the night time break and enter, or having, with such felonious intent, entered, shall in the night time break a dwelling house, any person then being lawfully therein, and such offender being, at the time of such breaking or entering, armed with a dangerous weapon, or arming himself or herself, in such house, with a dangerous weapon, or committing an actual assault upon any person lawfully being in such house; every such offender, and any person present, aiding, assisting or consenting in such burglary, or accessary thereto before the fact, by counselling, hiring, or procuring such burglary to be committed, who shall be duly convicted thereof in the Supreme Judicial Court, shall suffer the punishment of death.
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    1804 Mass. Acts. 111
    (1805)
    Ch. 81, An Act to Provide for the Proof of Fire Arms Manufactured Within this Commonwealth: Requiring appointment of two per county for the inspection of barrels. Barrels required inspection under varying charges of powder and at varying degrees of elevation. Proven barrels are stamped post-inspection. Failed barrels fined thirty cents. Failed pistols fined twenty-five cents. Unproven barrels & pistols fined at ten dollars.
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    Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 240, § 1 (1837)
    (1837)
    Enrolled every able bodied white male citizen resident between eighteen to forty-five into the militia except idiots, lunatics, common drunkards, vagabonds, paupers, persons convicted of any infamous crime.
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    1801 Mass. Acts 507-08
    (1801)
    An Act to Provide for the Storing and Safe Keeping of Gun Powder in the Town of Boston, and to Prevent Damage from the Same, ch. XX § 1: §1... That all Gun Powder imported and landed at the port of Boston, shall be brought to and lodged in the Powder House or Magazine in said town, and not elsewhere, on pain of confiscation of all Powder put or kept in any other house or place...