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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Item type:Item, City Ordinances of Springfield, Mass. 121 (1871)(1871)No. 44. An Ordinance for the Prevention of Injurious Practices in the Streets, §21 Firearms, not to be discharged in streets, &c., except, &c.: "Sect. 21. No person shall discharge any gun, pistol or other firearm in any of the streets, highways, public squares or commons in the city ; provided, this section shall not apply to the use of such weapons in the lawful defense of the person, family or property of any one, or in the performance of any duty required by law, nor to the firing of a salute of cannon or artillery by permission of the mayor and aldermen."Item type:Item, 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.Item type:Item, 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 RoxburyItem type:Item, The Municipal Register Containing the City Charter and Ordinances, Together with the Rules and Orders of the City Council and a List of the past and Present City Officers of the City of Newburyport 130 (1869)(1869)Ordinance No. 14, An Ordinance for the Prevention of Certain acts in the Streets and on the Public Grounds of the City § 15: No person shall fire any rocket, squib, cracker, or other thing formed of gunpowder or other explosive substance, in whole or in part; nor make any bonfire of tar barrels or any other substances, nor, except in the performance of some duty authorized by law, discharge any field piece, gun or other firearm in or upon any street or other way, or upon any wharf or landing within the city.Item type:Item, Municipal Register of the City of Lawrence 1870, at 185 (1870)(1870)Concerning Fires § 4: The city council may order that no gunpowder shall be kept within the city, except in tight casks or canisters; that not more than fifty pounds thereof shall be kept in any building within twenty-five rods of any other building, or if within ten rods, then not more than twenty-five pounds; nor more than one pound in any place, unless in copper, tin or brass canisters holding not more than five pounds each, and closely covered.Item type:Item, Ordinances of the City of Charlestown 31 (1870)(1870)Ordinance No. 10, §32; Discharging Guns Prohibited, An Ordinance in Relation to Streets: No person shall, except in the performance of some duty required by law, discharge any gun, pistol, or other firearm, loaded with balls or shot, or with powder only, within the city."Item type:Item, Augustus Peck Clarke, The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Cambridge 120 (1871)(1871)Ch. 25 § 30: No person shall, except in the performance of some legal duty, discharge any gun, pistol, or other firearm, within the principal inhabited parts of the city, or within fifty rods of any dwelling-house therein.Item type:Item, Records Of The Colony Of New Plymouth In New England 242 (David Pulsifier ed., 1861)(1861)It is enacted by the Court that no Indians that are servants to the English shall be permitted to use guns for fowling or other exercise; as being judged that it may prove prejudicial in time to the English; and therefore that no one shall be permitted so to do on pain of forfeiting every such gun so used to the use of the Colony.Item type:Item, Mass. Gen. Stat. 107, ch. 13, § 113 (1859)(1859)§A soldier who unnecessarily, or without order from a superior officer, comes to any parade, with his musket, rifle, or pistol, loaded with ball, slug, or shot, or so loads the same while on parade, or unnecessarily, or without order from a superior officer, discharges the same when going to, returning from, or upon parade, shall forfeit not less than five nor more than twenty dollars, to be recovered on complaint of the clerk, one-half to his use and one-half to the use of commanding officer.Item type:Item, 1866 Mass. Acts 219(1866)An Act Concerning The Militia, § 184: "Section 184. It shall not be lawful for any body of men whatsoever, other than the regularly organized corps of the volunteer militia, the troops of the United States, and the ancient and honorable artillery company, and the veteran artillery association of Newburyport, to associate themselves together as a military company or organization, or to parade in public with arms in any city or town of this Commonwealth, without the license of the governor thereof, which may at any time be revoked;§Item type:Item, Mass. Gen. Stat. 255, ch. 49, § 27 (1873)(1859)Appointed six individuals in each county for proving of musket barrels and pistols. Proven arms are stamped by the appointed officials.Item type:Item, 1 William A. Richardson, Supplement to the General Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 836-37 (1873)(1870)An Act to Aid in the Preservation of Birds, Birds' Eggs, And Deer. § 6: Whoever, at any season of the year, takes, kills or destroys any game birds by means of traps, snares, nets or springs; or shoots at or kills any water fowl, by the use of any battery, swivel, or pivot gun, shall forfeit for each such offence twenty-five dollars: provided that between the first day of October and the first day of January in any year, any person may on his own premises, or for his own personal use and not for sale, take or kills by means of traps or snares any of the birds known as ruffed grouse or partridges.Item type:Item, 1866 Mass. Acts 197(1866)An Act Concerning The Militia, § 120: A soldier who unnecessarily or without order from a superior officer comes to any parade with his musket, rifle or pistol loaded with ball, slug or shot, or so loads the same while on parade, or unnecessarily or without order form a superior officer discharges the same when going to, returning from or upon parade, shall forfeit not less than five nor more than twenty dollars.Item type:Item, Mass. Gen. Laws, ch. 194, § 2 (1850), codified at Mass. Gen. Stat. 816, ch. 164 § 11 (1873)(1850)Prohibited the manufacture or sale of slung-shots or metallic knuckles. Violators fined not less than fifty dollars or imprisoned not exceeding six months.Item type:Item, 1856 Mass. Acts 86(1856)An Act to Incorporate the Proprietors of Oak Grove Cemetery, ch. 154 § 6: Any person who shall . . . discharge any gun or other fire-arms, within the said limits, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof before any justice of the peace, or other court of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine not less than five dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars...