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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 - 8 of 8
  • Item type:Item,
    City Charter and Revised Ordinances of the City of Fall River 158 (1887)
    (1887)
    Ordinance so the City of Fall River, Streets Use. Revised Ordinance. Discharge of Firearms. § 20: No person shall, except in the performance of some legal duty, discharge any gun, pistol or firearm in any street or public place, or within fifty rods of any dwelling house.
  • 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,
    The Public Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 381 (1882)
    (1882)
    §§ 29-31: Gunpowder manufactured in this commonwealth shall be put into strong and tight casks containing twenty-five pounds, fifty pounds, or one hundred pounds each, or well secured in copper, tin, or brass canisters holding not more than five pounds each, and closely covered with copper, brass, or tin covers. § 30. Each cask containing gunpowder manufactured within this commonwealth, or brought into the same by land or by water and landed, shall be marked on the head with black paint in legible characters with the word gunpowder, the name of the manufacturer, the weight of the cask, and the year in which the powder was manufactured; and each canister of gunpowder shall be marked with the word gunpowder. § 31. Whoever knowingly marks a cask of gunpowder with the name of any person other than the manufacturer of the same, or changes gunpowder from a cask marked with the name of one manufacturer into a cask marked with the name of another manufacturer, shall for each offence forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty dollars.
  • Item type:Item,
    2 Charles Allen, Report of the Commissioners on the Revision of the Statutes 333 (1881)
    (1881)
    Fire Arms, § 18. There shall be in each county, where the manufacture of fire-arms is carried on, provers of fire-arms, not more than six in number, appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the council, who shall prove all musket barrels and pistol barrels which, being sufficiently ground, bored and breeched, are offered to them to be proved. § 19. All musket barrels and pistol barrels manufactured in this commonwealth shall, before they are sold or stocked, be proved by one of the provers with a ball suited to the bore of the barrel and with a charge of powder equal in weight to the ball.
  • Item type:Item,
    The Public Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1163 (1886)
    (1882)
    Prohibited the manufacture, sale, giving, or disposing of any instrument or weapon usually known as a slungshot, metallic knuckles, billy, or other dangerous weapon. Violators punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months.
  • Item type:Item,
    Report of Commissioners on Revision of Ordinances 141 (1882)
    (1882)
    Whoever sells to a child under the age of sixteen years, without the written consent of its parent or guardian, any cartridge or fixed ammunition of which any fulminate is a component part, or a gun, pistol, or other mechanical contrivance arranged for the explosion of such cartridge or of any fulminate, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars.