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, 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 Every license shall be in force one year from the date thereof; provided, that any license may be rescinded by the City Council, at their discretion.§Item type:Item, Report of the Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Springfield, Mass. 23 (1891)(1891)Park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, Office of Park Commission, New Bedford, Mass., Park Ordinances 74-75 (1902)(1902)3. 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 for sale or otherwise any intoxicating liquors or beverages; to sell or offer for sale any goods or wares; to post or display signs, placards, flags or any advertising devices whatsoever; to play games of chance or to have possession of instruments of gambling; to utter profane, threatening, abusive or indecent language; to make orations or loud outcries; to in any manner annoy other visitors.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, Appendix A, Rules and Regulations Governing the Public Parks within the City of Haverhill (1905)(1905)It is forbidden . . . 9. To throw stones, balls or other missiles; to discharge or carry firearms, torpedoes, firecrackers or fireworksItem 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, Rules and Regulations Governing the Public Parks within the City of Lowell 58 (1903)(1903)It is forbidden to throw stones, balls or other missiles; to discharge or carry firearms, fire crackers, torpedoes or fire-worksItem 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, The Great Woods of Lynn and Other Public Parks of the Town in 1903, Being the 15th Annual Report of the Park Commissioners of Lynn, Massachusetts 81 (1903)(1903)[I]t is forbidden ? to discharge or carry firearms, except by members of the police force in the discharge of their duties.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, 1927 Mass. Acts 413-16(1927)An Act Relative to Machine Guns and Other Firearms, ch. 326, §§ 1-2 (amending §§ 121, 123): Prohibited selling, renting, or leasing a pistol, revolver, or machine gun to a person without a license to possess the same.Item type:Item, 1926 Mass. Acts 256(1926)An Act Prohibiting the Sale and Use of Silencers for Firearms: Whoever sells or keeps for sale, or offers, or gives or disposes of, or uses, any instrument, attachment, weapon or appliance for causing the firing of any gun, revolver, pistol or other firearm to be silent or intended to lessen or muffle the noise of the firing or any gun, revolver, pistol or other firearm shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years in the state prison or for not more than two and one half years in a jail or house of correction.Item type:Item, 1922 Mass. Acts 563(1922)Ch. 485, An Act Relative to the Sale and Carrying of Firearms, ch. 485, § 8 (amending § 130): Prohibited the sale or furnishing of firearms, air guns, or dangerous weapons to minors under age 15 or noncitizens without a permit to carry firearms; violators subject to fine. Law does not apply to instructors furnishing military weapons to pupils for instruction or drill.Item type:Item, 1910 Mass. Acts 552(1910)An Act to Prohibit the Sale of Certain Pistols and Explosives and to Authorize the Making of Regulations Relative to Fireworks and Firecrackers, ch. 565, § 1: It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or keep for sale any blank cartridge, toy pistol, toy gun or toy cannon that can be used to fire a blank cartridge; or to sell or keep for sale, or to fire, explode or cause to explode any blank cartridge or bomb; or to sell or keep for sale, or to set off, explode or cause to explode any fireworks containing any pieric acid or pirates, or any firecracker exceeding two inches in length and three eights of an inch in diameter or of a greater explosive power than a firecracker of such size containing black gunpowder only . . .Item type:Item, 1919 Mass. Acts 139(1919)An Act Relative to the Issuance of Search Warrants for the Seizure of Firearms, Weapons and Ammunition Kept for Unlawful Purposes, ch. 179, §§ 1-2: A court or justice authorized to issue warrants in criminal cases may, upon complaint under oath that the complainant believes that an unreasonable number of rifles, shot guns, pistols, revolvers or other dangerous weapons, or that an unnecessary quantity of ammunition, is kept or concealed for any unlawful purpose in a particular house or place, if satisfied that there is a reasonable cause for such belief, issue a warrant to search such property. § 2. If the court or justice finds that such property is kept for an unlawful purpose, it shall be forfeited and disposed of as the court or justice may by order direct.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, 1904 Mass. Acts 310-11(1904)An Act to Authorize the Fire Marshal's Department of the District Police to Make Regulations Relative to Explosives and Inflammable Fluids, ch. 370, §§ 1-2: To regulate the keeping, storage, use, manufacture or sale of gunpowder, dynamite or other explosives and inflammable fluids, shall hereafter be exercised by the fire marshal's department of the district police. § 2. The fire marshal's department of the district police may make regulations for the keeping, storage, use, manufacture or sale of gunpowder,Item type:Item, 1900 Mass. Acts 150(1900)An Act to Regulate the Shooting of Black Duck, Geese, Brant and Other Aquatic Birds in Plymouth Harbor or Bay, ch. 209, § 1: Whoever within the limits of Plymouth harbor or bay, . . . shoots at or kills or pursues a black duck, goose, brant or other aquatic bird, by the use of any sneak boat, raft, floating box or device of like description, not including what is known as an ordinary dory or row boat, or by the use of any pivot gun or swivel gun, or any other firearm not usually held at and discharged from the shoulder, shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars.Item type:Item, 1909 Mass. Acts 148(1909)An Act to Prohibit the Sale of Air Guns to Certain Minors § 92: Whoever sells or furnishes to a minor under the age of fifteen years any firearms, air guns or other dangerous weapon shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars for each offence; but instructors and teachers may furnish military weapons to pupils for instruction and drill.Item type:Item, 1906 Mass. Acts 150(1906)Ch. 172, An Act to Regulate by License the Carrying of Concealed Weapons § 2: Whoever, except as provided by the laws of this Commonwealth, carries on his person a loaded pistol or revolver, without authority or permission as provided in section one of this act, or whoever carries any stiletto, dagger, dirk-knife, slung-shot or metallic knuckles, shall upon conviction be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.