An Act for Putting the Milita of this Province into a Readiness for Defense of the Same., ch. 67, § 3, MASS. GEN. LAWS (T. B. Wait & Co. 1814) (Law Passed 1700).

§ 3. "Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no person or persons whatsoever in any town or garrison, shall during the time of war, or of keeping a military watch in such town or garrison, presume to discharge or shoot off any gun or guns after the sun’s setting or before the sun’s rising, unless in case of alarm, approach of an enemy, or other necessary defense, on pain that every person, so offending, and being thereof convicted before one or more of his majesty’s justices of the peace, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty shillings for each gun so discharged, on moiety thereof to and for the use of the poor of the town where the offence shall be committed, and the other moiety to him or them that shall inform or prosecute for the same..."