STAGE SERVER

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.

Browse

Filters

1881 - 188981890 - 18989

Advanced Search

Filter by

Settings

Start date: 1880End date: 1899

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
  • Thumbnail Image
    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 Every license shall be in force one year from the date thereof; provided, that any license may be rescinded by the City Council, at their discretion.§
  • Thumbnail Image
    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 visitor
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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."
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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."
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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 men
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    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.