FRC Jurisdictions Portal
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This top community organizes Firearms Research Center holdings by jurisdiction. It provides separate collections for U.S. states, territories, the District of Columbia, and the federal jurisdiction, spanning the territorial period to the present.
Scope of Content
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and selected municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, company records, and oral histories tied to specific places and periods.
- Research outputs: FRC reports, datasets, and interpretive materials that contextualize legal and technical developments.
How to Use
- Browse: open a jurisdiction collection to view items for that state, territory, DC, or the federal jurisdiction.
- Search: use keywords and filter by Jurisdiction, Date Issued, and Category. Record any Exceptions noted for applicability.
- Cite: use the item’s identifier and provided links (Original Source and Duke reference) when available.
Metadata & Standards
Items are described using Dublin Core with standardized fields for Jurisdiction, Date Issued, Category, and Exceptions to support precise discovery and comparison.
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For questions about coverage, rights, or submissions, contact the Firearms Research Center (firearmsresearchcenter.org).
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Item type:Item, Item type:Item, 2026-10-01 Attribution Test #4(2026-10-01)Item type:Item, Alabama TEST submission(2026)Item type:Item, The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Portland 364-69, 371-72 (1911)(1911)These Portland laws regulated firearms, gunpowder, explosives, and other dangerous substances. They required licenses for selling or possessing larger quantities of gunpowder, established safe storage and transportation requirements, and restricted fireworks, blasting, silencers, and toy pistols. Gunpowder generally had to be securely stored, covered during transportation, and kept within specified quantity limits. Firearms could not generally be discharged within city limits. Carrying concealed or threateningly displaying deadly weapons was prohibited without a license, with exceptions for certain law enforcement officers. Violations could result in fines, imprisonment, seizure or forfeiture of weapons or explosives, and other penalties.Item type:Item, Chas. Ben. Darwin, Ordinances of the City of Burlington 112 (1856)(1855)Prohibited the discharge of firearms within the city.Item type:Item, Del Cary Smith, Ordinances of the City of Port Townsend 25 (1890)(1890)Sections 3-5 prohibited carrying concealed weapons, brandishing firearms or other deadly weapons, and challenging another to fight (dueling).Item type:Item, Revised Code of Ordinances of the City of McKinney 6 (1899)(1899)Prohibited the public discharge of firearms in McKinney.Item type:Item, Compilation of the Ordinances of the City of St. Augustine 53 (1884)(1878-04-28)Imposed a $25 license tax on dealers of pistols, bowie-knives, and dirks.Item type:Item, The General Orders of the Board of Supervisors Providing Regulations for the Government of the City and County of San Francisco 95 (1881)(1880)Imposed license rates for sellers and keepers of gunpowder and shooting galleries.Item type:Item, Laws, Statutes, Ordinances, and Constitutions 11 (John Holt ed., 1763)(1763)Prohibited the discharge of firearms within the city of New York.Item type:Item, 1781 Del. Acts 1, 3(1781)Required most taxpaying men ages 18–50 to purchase and maintain militia arms and equipment at their own expense, imposing fines for noncompliance while exempting certain occupations and individuals.Item type:Item, Ordinances of the Corporation of the City of Baltimore 277-83 (1801)(1801)Regulated gunpowder storage and transport to reduce fire and explosion risks. It limited private possession, required excess powder to be stored in a public magazine, imposed transport and shipping restrictions, authorized searches for violations, established a superintendent to manage the magazine, and imposed penalties for noncompliance.Item type:Item, 1827 N.H. Laws 231-32(1827)Required local tax collectors to collect assessed taxes, and provide advance notice before seizing property for nonpayment, and authorized distraint and public auction of a delinquent taxpayer’s goods after specified notice periods and procedures if taxes remain unpaid.Item type:Item, Laws, Statutes, Ordinances, and Constitutions 39-40 (John Holt ed., 1763)(1763)Limits gunpowder stored within New York City, requires excess powder to be kept in licensed public magazines, regulates storage, transport, fees, and inspections, and imposes fines for violations to reduce fire and explosion risks.Item type:Item, The Compact with the Charter and Laws of the Colony of New Plymouth 1, 8-12 (William Brigham ed., 1836)(1620)Authorized the colony's council to appoint officials, enact laws consistent with English law, impose martial law during emergencies, recruit settlers, transport supplies duty-free, and use military force to defend the colony and exclude unauthorized inhabitants.Item type:Item, 1793 Mass. Acts 289-90(1763)Requires free, able-bodied white male citizens ages eighteen to forty-five to enroll in the state militia and prove eligibility if questioned.Item type:Item, 1874-75 Va. Acts 282-83(1874)Ch. 239, § 6, sched. B(18): Included the value of all "rifles, muskets, and other fire-arms, bowie-knives, dirks, and all weapons of a similar kind" in list of taxable personal property, imposing a tax payable of 50 cents per 100 dollars of value.Item type:Item, The Charter and General Ordinances of the Town of Lexington 108 (1892)(1873)Prohibited the discharge of firearms and other weapons in public streets and alleys, punishable by a fine of one to five dollars.Item type:Item, The Charter and General Ordinances of the Town of Lexington 87 (1892)(1869)Penalized carrying concealed weapons (including pistols and bowie knives) with fines and forfeiture, except for officers on duty. Further prohibited supplying cigarettes or specified weapons to minors under sixteen, punishable by fines.Item type:Item, 9 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 267-68 (1823)(1777)Applied to "all free male persons, hired servants [not indentured], and apprentices, between the ages of sixteen and fifty years." "The county lieutenant, colonels, lieutenant colonels, and major" had to appear "with a sword." Every captain and lieutenant needed a "firelock and bayonet, a cartouch box, a sword, and three charges of powder and ball." Ensigns needed a sword. Non-commissioned officers and privates had to have a rifle and tomahawk, or good fire-lock and bayonet, with a pouch and horn, or a cartouch or cartridge box, and with three charges of powder and ball; and, moreover, each of the said officers and soldiers shall constantly keep one pound of powder and four pounds of ball, to be produced whenever called for by his commanding officer.Item type:Item, 9 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 16, 28 (1823)(1775)Established militia age limits of 16 and 50. Every militiaman had to "furnish himself with a good rifle, if to be had, or otherwise with a tomahawk, common firelock, bayonet, pouch, or cartouch box, three charges of powder and ball, and appear with the same at the place appointed for mustering, and shall constantly keep by him one pound of powder and four pounds of ball."Item type:Item, 11 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 476-78 (1823)(1784)Increased its militia's minimum age to 18, and kept the maximum age at 50. Militiamen were required to appear "armed, equipped, and accoutred" according to rank. "The county lieutenants, lieutenant colonels commandant, and majors, with a sword; the captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, with a sword and espontoon." Noncommissioned officers and privates needed to supply themselves "with a good clean musket, carrying an ounce ball, and three feet eight inches long in the barrel, with a good bayonet and iron ramrod well fitted thereto." Plus also "a cartridge box properly made, to contain and secure twenty cartridges" and "a good knapsack and canteen."Item type:Item, 9 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 281 (1823)(1777)Required "all free born male inhabitants of this state, above the age of sixteen years" to "renounce and refuse all allegiance to George the third" and swear to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to the commonwealth of Virginia, as a free and independent state."Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 13 (1823)(1684)"every trooper of the respective colonies of this country, shall furnish and supply himself with a good able horse, saddle, and all arms and furniture, fitt and compleat for a trooper, and that every foot soldier, shall furnish himselfe, with a sword, musquet and other furniture fitt for a soldier, and that each trooper and foot soldier, be provided with two pounds of powder, and eight pounds of shott, and shall continually keep their armes well fixt, cleane, and fitt for the king's service."Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 335-38 (1823)(1705)The militia included "all male persons whatsoever, from sixteen to sixty years of age ... to serve in horse or foot." An infantryman needed "a firelock, muskett or fusee well fixed, a good sword," cartridge box, and ammunition. He had to bring six rounds of ammunition to muster. Additionally, he had to "have at his place of abode two pounds of powder and eight pounds of shott, and bring the same into the field with him when thereunto specially required." A horseman needed the usual tack and ammunition accoutrements along with a pair of pistols and a sword. He had to bring eight rounds of ammunition to muster. At his usual place of abode, he also had to keep a well fixed carabine, two pounds of powder and eight pounds of shot. The act made it unlawful for creditors to seize a militiaman's arms as payment for debts. If a creditor nevertheless took someone's militia equipment, the seizure would "be unlawful and void." Any "officer or person that presumes to make or serve the same" (e.g., a sheriff serving a writ of attachment) would "be lyable to the suit of the party grieved, wherein double damages shall be given upon recovery."Item type:Item, 2 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 381 (1823)(1676)"whereas by a branch of an act of assembly made in March last, liberty is granted to all persons to carry their armes wheresoever they goe, which liberty hath beene found to be very prejudiciall to the peace and wellfaire of this colony. Bee it therefore further enacted by this present grand assembly, and the authority thereof, and it is hereby enacted, that if any person or persons shall, from and after publication of this act, presume to assemble together in armes to the number of five or upwards without being legally called together in armes the number of five or upwards, they be held deemed and adjudged as riotous and mutinous, and that they be proceeded against and punished accordingly."Item type:Item, 7 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 93-94 (1823)(1757)Restored the minimum militia age to 18 and set the maximum age at 60. Soldiers had to furnish themselves with "a firelock well fixed, a bayonet fitted to the same," and keep an extra pound of powder and "four pounds of ball" at home.Item type:Item, 4 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 78 (1823)(1720)Appropriated one thousand pounds to distribute "to each christian titheable [subject to taxation], one firelock, musket, one socket, bayonet fitted thereto, one cartouch box, eight pounds bullet, two pounds powder, until the whole one thousand pounds be laid out."Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 205-07 (1823)(1701)Provided 500-acre land grants, with the proviso that the grantee keep "upon the said land one christian man between sixteen and sixty years of age perfect of limb, able and fitt for service." Such men should be "continually provided with a well fixt musquett or fuzee, a good pistoll, sharp simeter, tomahauk and five pounds of good clean pistoll powder and twenty pounds of sizable leaden bulletts or swan or goose shott to be kept within the fort directed by this act besides the powder and shott for his necessary or usefull shooting at game..."Item type:Item, 7 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 534, 537 (1823)(1762)Ensured that "every person so exempted shall always keep in his house or place of abode such arms, accoutrements, and ammunition, as are by the [1757] act required to be kept by the militia."Item type:Item, 5 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 16 (1823)(1738)The militia under this act consisted of "all male persons, above the age of one and twenty years."Item type:Item, 2 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 126 (1823)(1662)"that every man able to beare armes have in his house a fixed gun, two pound of powder and eight pound of shot at least"Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 127 (1809)(1623)24. That no man go or send abroad without a sufficient partie will armed. 25. That men go not to worke in the ground without The samL their arms (and a centinell upon them). 27. That the commander of every plantation take care that there be sufficient of powder and amunition with powder in the plantation under his command and their pieces fixt and their arms compleate.Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 263 (1809)(1643)"Masters of every family shall bring with them to church on Sundays one fixed and serviceable gun with sufficient powder and shott"Item type:Item, 2 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 333 (1823)(1676)"that in goeing to churches and courts in those tymes of danger, all people be enjoyned and required to goe armed for their greate security"Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 198 (1809)(1632)"NOE man shall goe to worke in the grounds without theire armes, and a centinell uppon them places where the commander shall require it." And "ALL men that are fittinge to beare armes, shall bringe their peices to the church"Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 525 (1809)(1659)"That every man able to beare armes have in his house a fixt gunn two pounds of powder and eight pound of shott at least"Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 226 (1809)(1639)"ALL persons except negroes to be provided with arms and ammunition or be fined at pleasure of the Governor and Council"Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 127 (1809)(1624)"That men go not to worke in the ground without their arms (and a centinell upon them)." And "That the commander of every plantation take care that there be sufficient of powder and amunition within the plantation under his command and their pieces fixt and their arms compleate."Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 292 (1809)(1645)"all negro men and women, and all other men from the age of 16 to 60" could be drafted to carry on war against the Indians