“ORDINANCE RELATING TO CONCEALED WEAPONS.

Be it ordained by the Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council of the City of Portland, in City Council assembled, as follows:

    SECTION 1. No person shall, within the corporate limits of the City of Portland, in a threatening manner display any firearm, slung shot, knuckles, bowie knife, dirk, stiletto, or other dangerous or deadly weapon. And no person shall, within the corporate limits of the City of Portland, wear under his clothes or concealed about his person any such fire arm, slung shot, knuckles, bowie knife, dirk, stiletto, or other dangerous or deadly weapon, unless first licensed so to do in the manner following:

    SECTION 2. The Chief of Police, or, in his absence, either of the captains of police, may, upon written application, issue to any person of good moral character, whose business or occupation requires the carrying of such weapons for protection, a certificate setting forth that such person has complied with the requirements of this ordinance, and that he has been duly licensed to carry such weapon or weapons for protection. Such license shall continue in effect until revoked by the Chief of Police.

    SECTION 3. Nothing in the foregoing sections shall be construed as forbidding the carrying or wearing of such weapons by United States marshals, sheriffs and their deputies, and constables and police officers of the City of Portland.

    SECTION 4 Whoever violates this ordinance shall be fined not less than five nor more than twenty dollars for each offence.

    SECTION 5. This ordinance shall take effect when approved.

    Approved by the Mayor, October 9, 1909.”

Full Text: 1909, Portland, ME, Ordinance Relating to Concealed Weapons

City of Portland Auditor’s Fifty-First Annual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Portland for the Financial Year of 1909: Jan. 1, 1909 (Both Inclusive) Dec. 31, 1909, With the Mayor’s Address and Annual Reports of the Several Departments Made to the City Council, December, 1909, Also Catalogue of the City Councils Since Adoption of City Charter, 1832–1910 (Portland, ME: Mark’s Printing House, 1910), 152-153. Approved October 9, 1909.

“Sec. 113. No body of men, other than the active militia and the troops of the United States, shall associate themselves together as a military company or organization, or parade in public with firearms in any city or town of this state; nor shall any city or town raise or appropriate any money toward arming, equipping, uniforming or in any other way supporting, sustaining or providing drill rooms or armories for any such body of men; but associations wholly composed of soldiers and soldiers honorably discharged from the service of the United States and the order known as the Sons of Veterans may parade at any time in public with firearms, having first obtained the written permission of the city or municipal officers of the town or city in which they reside to parade, and students in educational institutions where military science is taught as a prescribed part of the course of instruction, may, with the consent of the governor, drill and parade with firearms in public under the superintendence of their military instructors. Any person violating any provision of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.”

1909, ME, Ch. 206, § 113—Military Parades by Unauthorized Bodies Prohibited

Acts and Resolves as Passed by the Seventy-Fourth Legislature of the State of Maine: Published by the Secretary of State, Agreeably to Resolves of June 28, 1820, February 18, 1840, and March 16, 1842 (Augusta, ME: Kennebec Journal Print, 1909), 257. Chapter 206—An Act to Consolidate and Revise the Military Laws of the State of Maine, § 113. Approved April 2, 1909.

“Sec. 171. It shall not be lawful for any body of men whatsoever, other than the regularly organized corps of the militia, the troops of the United States, to associate themselves together as a military company or organization, or to parade in public with arms, in any city or town of this state, without the license of the governor therefor, which may at any time be revoked; nor shall it be lawful for any city or town to raise or appropriate any money toward arming, equipping, uniforming, or in any way supporting or sustaining or providing drill rooms or armories for any such bodies of men.”

1865, ME, An Act Concerning the Militia, §171

Acts and Resolves Passed by the Forty-Fourth Legislature of the State of Maine (Augusta, ME: Stevens & Sayward, 1865), 83. Ch. 307, An Act Concerning the Militia, §171. Approved 23 Feb., 1865.

“Sect. 73. The mayor and aldermen of any city, or the selectmen of any town, upon complaint made to them under oath, that the complainant has reason to believe that any booth, shed, or other temporary erection, situated within one mile of any muster field, is used and occupied for the sale of spirituous or fermented liquors, or for the purpose of gaming for money, or other property, may, if they consider the complaint well founded, order the owner or occupant thereof to vacate and close the same immediately ; and if the owner or occupant shall refuse or neglect so to do, the said mayor and aldermen or selectmen may forthwith abate such booth, shed or other temporary erection, as a nuisance, and pull down or otherwise destroy the same in any manner they may choose, or through the agency of any force, civil or military, which they may see fit to employ.”

1856, ME, Temporary Buildings within One Mile of Muster Field, Used for Sale of Intoxicating Liquors, May Be Removed

Acts and Resolves Passed by the Thirty-Fifth Legislature of the State of Maine, A. D. 1856 (Augusta, ME: 1856), 97. Ch. 265 An Act to Organize and Discipline the Militia, §73 Temporary Buildings within One Mile of Muster Field, Used for Sale of Intoxicating Liquors, May Be Removed. Approved 9 April, 1856.

CHAPTER VI. Moral Deportment and Miscellaneous Regulations.

6. No Student shall keep firearms, or any deadly weapon whatever. He shall bring no gunpowder upon the College premises; nor shall cats or dogs be kept by Students for their private use or pleasure.

Full Text: Google Books

§ 1. Burglary with explosives, defined. Any person who, with intent to commit crime, breaks, and enters, either by day or by night, any building, whether inhabited or not, and opens or attempts to open any vault, safe or other secure place by the use of nitroglycerine, dynamite, gunpowder or any other explosive, shall be deemed guilty of burglary with explosives. § 2. Penalty. Any person duly convicted of burglary with explosives shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of not less than twenty nor more than forty years.

No person shall have a rifle or shotgun, either loaded or with a cartridge in the magazine thereof, in or on any motor vehicle while the same is upon any highway or in the fields or forests. Whoever violates any provision of this section shall be subject to a penalty of not more than one hundred dollars and costs for each offense or imprisonment for not more than sixty days or both said fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court.

No person shall have in possession at any time when he is upon the wild lands, water or highways, or in the woods or fields of the state, or in any camp, lodge, or place of resort for hunters or fishermen, or in its immediate vicinity, any jacklight or light fitted for use in the hunting of game in the night time, or any swivel, pivot, or set gun…

“Chapter 90.

An Act to amend Chapter two hundred and thirty-three of the Private and Special Laws of nineteen hundred and nine, entitled “An Act for the protection of Deer in York County.”

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine, as follows:

Section one of said chapter is hereby amended by adding the following: ‘Provided, however, that it shall be unlawful to hunt, chase, catch or kill any deer within the limits of the town of York, in said county, at any time,’ so that when amended said section shall read as follows:
‘Section I. There shall be an annual close time for deer, during which it shall be unlawful to hunt, take, catch, kill or destroy any deer, in the county of York, from December first to October thirty-first, inclusive, following of each year. It shall be unlawful to hunt, chase, catch or kill more than one deer in said county during the month of November in each year, and it shall be unlawful to have in possession in one open season more than one deer which has been killed in said county. It shall be unlawful to hunt deer with a shot gun in this county. Provided, however, that it shall be unlawful to hunt, chase, catch or kill any deer within the limits of the towns of York, Kittery and Eliot, in said county, at any time.’ “

Full Text (Subscription Required): Hein

Acts and Resolves of the Seventy-Fifth Legislature of the State of Maine 1911: Published by the Secretary of State, Agreeably to Resolves of June 28, 1820, February 18, 1840, and March 16, 1842 (Augusta, ME: Kennebec Journal Print, 1911), 338. Maine – 75th Legislature, Public & Private, Special Acts and Resolves, Regular Session, Chapter 90—An Act to Amend Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Three of the Private and Special Laws of Nineteen Hundred and Nine, Entitled “An Act for the Protection of Deer in York County.”  Approved March 11, 1911.

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale, use or have in his possession, any gun, pistol or other firearm, fitted or contrived with any device for deadening the sound of explosion. Whoever violates any of the provisions of this act shall forfeit such firearm or firearms and the device or silencer, and shall further be subject to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or to imprisonment not exceeding sixty days, or to both fine and imprisonment. . .

Nuisances. Sale of blank cartridges and pistols prohibited. § 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 blank cartridge, or any pistol, or mechanical contrivance specially arranged or designed for the explosion of the same and any person violating the provisions of this ordinance shall be liable to a penalty of not less than fifty, and not exceeding one hundred dollars, to be recovered on complaint to the use of the City of Portland.

An Act to Establish a Bounty on Seals: Laws of 1891, c. 139, p. 156, as amended by laws of 1895, c. 168, p. 200. § 1. A bounty of one dollar for each and every seal killed in the waters of this state shall be paid by the treasurer of the town in which such seal is killed, to the person exhibiting to said treasurer the nose of such seal within thirty days after said seal was killed. Such treasurer shall destroy it and shall then proceed as in sections six and seven of chapter thirty of the revised statutes. § 2. The carcasses of such seals when destroyed shall not be left derelict in any waters of the state, but shall be removed therefrom and properly disposed of by the person destroying them; provided however, that it shall be unlawful during the months of June, July, and August to destroy seal in the waters of Casco bay by shooting with rifle or other long range weapon, which might endanger human life, under a penalty for a violation of either of the provisions of this section, of fifty dollars, to be recovered upon complaint or indictment before any court of competent jurisdiction.

Prevention of Crimes, § 10. Whoever goes armed with any dirk, pistol, or other offensive and dangerous weapon, without just cause to fear an assault on himself, family, or property, may, on complaint of any person having cause to fear an injury or breach of the peace, be required to find sureties to keep the peace for a term not exceeding one year, and in case of refusal, may be committed as provided in the preceding sections.

Fire-Works. § 12. Whoever has in his possession a toy pistol for the explosion of percussion caps, or blank cartridges, with intent to sell it, or sells or offers to sell or give it away, shall be fined not less than five nor more than one hundred dollars, and shall be liable for all damages resulting from such selling, or giving away, to be recovered in an action on the case.

City Ordinances, § 4. No person shall haul unto, or lay at any wharf in the city, any vessel having on board more than twenty-five pounds of gun-powder, nor discharge or receive on board exceeding that quantity, without having first obtained from the Mayor a permit therefor, designating the wharf at which said powder may be landed or received on board.

Regulations Relating to Gunpowder, § 1. No person shall keep or have in any shop, store, dwelling house or tenement, in the city of Lewiston, at any one time a larger quantity of gun-powder than one pound, unless he is licensed by the mayor and aldermen to keep and sell gunpowder, or except as hereinafter provided. § 2. It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to sell any gunpowder which may at the time be within said city, in any quantity, by wholesale or retail, without having first obtained from the mayor and aldermen a license to sell gunpowder, and every license shall be written or printed, and duly signed by the mayor, on a paper upon which shall be written or printed a copy of the rules and regulations established by the city relative to keeping, selling and transporting gunpowder within said city; and every such license shall be in force one year from the date thereof, unless revoked by the mayor and aldermen; but such license may, prior to its expiration, be renewed by an endorsement thereon by the mayor, for the further term of one year, and so from year to year, provided, always, that it may at any time be rescinded or revoked by the mayor and aldermen, for good and sufficient reasons. § 3. Every person who shall receive a license to sell gunpowder, as aforesaid, shall pay for the same to the treasurer of the city the sum of three dollars, and for each renewal of the same, the sum of one dollar.

Revised Ordinances [of the City of Hallowell], § 32. No person shall fire or discharge any gun or pistol from the top or window of any house or other building, or in any highway, public square, common or cemetery in the city.

[Ordinances of the City of Portland,] Of Gunpowder, § 1. No person not licensed to keep and sell gunpowder shall keep or have in his shop, store, dwelling house or other tenement, at any one time, a larger quantity of gunpowder than one pound. § 2. No person licensed to keep and sell gunpowder shall have or keep in his store, shop, dwelling house or in any other tenement or place whatever at any one time, a larger quantity of gunpowder then twenty-five pounds. § 3. Every person licensed to keep and sell gunpowder shall provide himself with a strongly made copper chest or box with a copper cover well secured, with hinges and a lock of the same material, and the keg or canister in which said powder may be, shall be kept in said copper chest or box, which shall at all times be placed near the outer door of the building in which it is kept, in convenient place to remove in case of fire. § 4. No person shall haul unto, or lay at any wharf in the city, any vessel having on board a quantity of gunpowder exceeding twenty-five pounds, or receive gunpowder on board exceeding twenty-five pounds, without first having obtained a permit from the mayor and aldermen, and said permit shall designate the wharf at which said powder may be landed, or received on board.

If any person shall go armed with a dirk, dagger, sword, pistol, or other offensive and dangerous weapon, without reasonable cause to fear an assault or other injury or violence to his person, or to his family or property, he may, on complaint of any person having resonable cause to fear an injury or breach of the peace, be required to find sureties for keeping the peace, for a term not exceeding six months, with the right of appealing as before provided.

Justices of the Peace, § 16. Any person, going armed with any dirk, dagger, sword, pistol, or other offensive and dangerous weapon, without a reasonable cause to fear an assault on himself, or any of his family or property, may, on the complaint of any person having cause to fear an injury or breach of the peace, be required to find sureties for keeping the peace for a term, not exceeding one year, with the right of appeal as before provided.

Section 4. If any person shall carry on the business of manufacturing gun powder, or of mixing or grinding the composition therefor, in any building within eighty rods from any valuable building, erected at the time when such business may be commenced the building, in which such business may be carried on as aforesaid, shall be deemed a public nuisance; and such person shall be liable to be prosecuted and indicted accordingly.

[Ordinances of the City of Portland,] § 41. Be it further ordained, That if any person shall fire or discharge any gun or pistol from the top or window of any house or other building, or in or upon any of the streets, wharves, lanes, alleys, or public squares, or in any yard or garden within the city, the same being loaded with ball or shot or with powder only , every person so offending, shall, for each offence, forfeit and pay one dollar. Provided, nevertheless, and it is hereby ordered, That nothing herein contained, shall be construed to prohibit any person or persons form the exercise of their lawful right of self defense, defense of property, aiding officers, or obeying the orders of their proper commanders on muster days, nor to prevent the destruction of mad dogs.

Be it further enacted, That it shall, and may be lawful for any one or more of the Selectmen of any town to enter any building, or other place, in such town, to search for gun powder, which they may have reason to suppose to be concealed or kept, contrary to the rules and regulations which shall be established in such town, according to the provisions of this Act, first having obtained a search warrant therefor according to law.

An Act for the prevention of damage by Fire, and the safe keeping of Gun Powder. § 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in Legislature assembled, That the Selectmen of each town within this State, containing not less than fifteen hundred inhabitants, be, and they hereby, are authorized and empowered to make rules and regulations, from time to time, in conformity with which, all gun powder which is or may be within such town, shall be kept, had or possessed therein; and no person or persons shall have, keep, or possess within such town, any gun powder, in any quantity, manner, form or mode, other than may be prescribed by the rules and regulations aforesaid. § 2. Be it further enacted, That any person or persons who shall keep, have or possess any gun powder, within any town, contrary to the rules and regulations which shall be established by the Selectmen of such town, according to the provisions of this Act, shall forfeit and pay a fine of not less than twenty dollars, and not exceeding one hundred dollars, for each and every offence, to be recovered by action of debt in any Court proper to try the same. § 3. Be it further enacted, That all gun powder which shall be had, kept or possessed, within any town, contrary to the rules and regulations which shall be established by the Selectmen of such town, according to the provisions of this Act, may be seized by any one or more of the Selectmen of such town, and shall within twenty days next after the seizure thereof, be libelled, by filing with any Justice of the Peace in such town, a libel, stating the time, place and cause of seizure, and the time and place when and where trial shall be had before said Justice, and a copy of said libel shall be served by the Sheriff, or his deputy, on the person or persons, in whose possession the said gun powder shall have been seized. . .

Be it enacted by the Senate, and House of Representatives, in Legislature assembled, That it shall be within the power, and be the duty of every Justice of the Peace within this county, to punish by fine not exceeding five dollars, all assaults and batteries that are not of a high and aggravated nature, and to examine into all homicides, murders, treasons, and felonies done and committed in this county, and commit to prison all persons guilty, or suspected to be guilty of manslaughter, murder, treason or other capital offence; and to cause to be staid and arrested, all affrayers, rioters, disturbers or breakers of the peace, and such as shall ride or go armed offensively, to the fear or terror of the good citizens of this State, or such others as may utter any menaces or threatening speeches; and upon view of such Justice, confession of the delinquent or other legal conviction of any such offence, shall require of the offender to fund sureties to appear and answer for his offence, at the Supreme Judicial Court, or Circuit Court of Common Pleas, next to be held within or for the same county at the discretion of the Justice, and as the nature or circumstances of the case may require;