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, Revised Ordinances of the City of Woburn 91 (1898)(1898)§§ 2-4: No person shall sell any gunpowder within the city, without such license. Every license shall be in force one year from the date thereof; provided, that any license may be rescinded by the City Council, at their discretion.§Item type:Item, Report of the Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Springfield, Mass. 23 (1891)(1891)Park Ordinances : To throw stones, balls, or other missiles; to discharge or carry firearms, firecrackers, torpedoes, or fireworks; to make fires; to play musical instruments; to have any intoxicating beverages; to sell, offer, or expose for sale any goods or wares; to post or display signs, placards, flags or advertising devices; to solicit subscriptions or contributions; to play games of chance, or to have possession of instruments of gambling; to make orations, harangues, or loud outcries; to enter into political canvassing of any kind; to utter profane, threatening, abusive, or indecent language, or to do any obscene or indecent act; to bathe or fish; to solicit the acquaintance of, or follow, or otherwise annoy other visitorItem 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, 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, Municipal Register of the City of Haverhill 157 (1897)(1896)Ch. 42, §§ 1-4: No person shall sell to any child under the age of sixteen years, without the written consent of the parent or guardian of such child, any toy-pistol or toy-cannon or any other article in which explosive compounds of any kind are used or of which such compounds form a part. Sect. 2. No person shall have, use, explode, fire off or discharge in any public street, place, lane, alley,, way, or on any common, park or public ground whatever within the city limits, any toy-pistol, toy-cannon or any other such article in which explosive compounds of any kind are used, or of which such compounds form a part. Sect. 3. Whoever violates any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be punished by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars. Sect. 4 . In every license granted to keep or sell gun-powder or fireworks within the City of Haverhill, the above section shall be inserted."Item type:Item, Annual Report of the Park Commissioners of the City of Lynn for the Year Ending December 20, 1892, at 45 (1893)(1892)Prohibited discharge or carry of firearms, except for members of the police force.Item type:Item, Municipal Register of the City of Haverhill 155 (1897)(1897)Ch. 40, § 1: No person shall fire or discharge any gun, pistol, revolver or other fire-arms within the compact part of the city, under a penalty for every such offence, not exceeding twenty dollars; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to the use of such weapons at any military exercise or review, or in the lawful defence of the person, family, or property of any citizen.Item type:Item, Municipal Register of the City of Haverhill 156 (1897)(1896)ch. 41, §§ 1-3: The Board of Aldermen may grant a license to any suitable person to keep a shooting-gallery under such conditions and restrictions as it may deem proper, and may revoke the same at pleasure. Sect. 2. No person shall keep or suffer to be kept a shooting-gallery in a house, building, yard, or dependency thereof, by him actually occupied or owned, without such a license. Sect. 3. Any constable or member of the police force shall at all times have the right to enter upon premises occupied as a shooting-gallery for the purpose of inspection, and no person shall hinder or obstruct the entrance of such officer."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, Revised Ordinances of the City of Fitchburg 179 (1893)(1893)Fitchburg Revised Ordinances. §§ 75-76: No person shall sell or keep for sale, within the limits of the city of Fitchburg, any toy pistol, toy cannon, or any other such article in which explosive compounds of any kind are used, or of which such compounds form a part. § 76. No person shall have, use, explode, fire off or discharge, within the limits of the city of Fitchburg, any toy pistol, toy cannon, or any other such article in which explosive compounds of any kind are used, or of which such compounds form a part.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, 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, 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, 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, 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, 1893 Mass. Acts 1049-50(1893)Ch. 367-An Act Concerning the Volunteer Militia, § 124: A law that unofficial armed associations are prohibited (1893): No body of men whatsoever, other than the regularly organized corps of the militia, the troops of the United States, the ancient and honorable artillery company, the veteran artillery association of Newburyport, the veteran cadet association of Salem, the veteran association of the independent corps of cadets of Boston, the Salem light infantry veteran association, the veteran artillery association of Amesbury and Salisbury, and the Boston light infantry association, shall associate themselves together at any time as a company or organization, for drill or parade with firearms, or maintain an armory in any city or town of this Commonwealth; nor shall any city or town raise or appropriate any money toward arming, equipping, uniforming or in any way supporting, sustaining or providing drill rooms or armories for any such body of menItem 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, 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, 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, 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.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...