Jurisdiction: Massachusetts

In sections one hundred and twenty-two to one hundred and twenty-nine, inclusive, “firearms” includes a pistol, revolver or other weapon of any description, loaded or unloaded, from which a shot or bullet can be discharged and of which the length of barrel, not including any revolving, detachable or magazine breach, does not exceed twelve inches, and a machine gun, irrespective of the length of the barrel. Any gun of small arm calibre designed for rapid fire and operated by a mechanism, or any gun which operates automatically after the first shot has been fired, either by gas action or recoil action, shall be deemed to be a machine gun for the purposes of said sections, and of sections one hundred and thirty–one and one hundred and thirty one B. . . § 2. . . Eighth, That no pistol or revolver shall be sold, rented or leased to a person who has not a permit, then in force, to purchase, rent or lease the same issued under section one hundred and thirty-one A, and that no machine gun shall be sold, rented or leased to a person who has not a license to possess the same issued under section one hundred and thirty-one. . .

. . . Whoever, except as provided by law, carries on his person, or carries on his person or under his control in a vehicle, a pistol or revolver, loaded or unloaded, or possesses a machine gun as defined in section one hundred and twenty-one of chapter one hundred and forty… or whoever so carries any stiletto, dagger, dirk knife, slung shot, metallic knuckles or sawed off shotgun, or whoever, when arrested upon a warrant for an alleged crime or when arrested while committing a crime or a breach or disturbance of the public peace, is armed with, or has on his person, or has on his person or under his control in a vehicle, a billy or dangerous weapon other than those herein mentioned, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than two and a half years in a jail . .

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.

§ 8 (amending § 130). Whoever sells or furnishes to a minor under the age of fifteen, or to an unnaturalized foreign born person who has who has not a permit to carry firearms under section one hundred and thirty-one, any firearm, air gun or other dangerous weapon or ammunition therefor shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars, but instructors and teachers may furnish military weapons to pupils for instruction and drill.

§ 1. 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.

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 pierates, 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 . . .

Section ninety-two of chapter one hundred and two of the Revised Laws is hereby amended by inserting after the word “firearms”, in the second line, the words — air guns, — so as to read as follows: Section 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.

§ 1. The powers conferred on city councils of cities and selectmen of towns by chapter one hundred and two of the Revised Laws, 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, dynamite or other explosives, crude petroleum or any of its products, or other inflammable fluids; and may prescribe the materials and construction of buildings to be used for any of the said purposes.

§ 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.

License to Sell Gunpowder in the City of Woburn. 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. § 3. Every person so licensed shall keep a sign over and outside of the principal entrance from the street of the building in which the powder is kept, in which shall be printed in capitals the words: “License to keep and sell gunpowder” § 4. The city clerk shall keep a record of all licenses, and of the places designated therein, which places shall not be changed, unless by consent of the City Council, in writing. Every person who receives a license shall sign his name to a copy of the rules prescribed in this chapter, as evidence of his assent thereto. §5. The provisions of the foregoing four sections shall not apply or extend to the keeping or storing of metallic cartridges in fire proof magazines, nor to cartridge manufacturers, so long as they shall keep their powder in canisters, as prescribed in section one, and in fire proof magazines, located and built to the satisfaction of the City Council so long as such manufacturers allow no more than one hundred pounds of gunpowder in any magazine, or five pounds of gunpowder not made into cartrdiges, in any workshop at any one time.