Massachusetts Gun Bill: Licenses, Storage, and Penalties

Massachusetts gun laws require anyone who wants to possess a firearm in the state to hold a state-issued license, register the weapon, store it locked when it isn’t under your direct control, and follow one of the country’s stricter rulebooks on what kinds of firearms and modifications are allowed at all. The framework was substantially rewritten in 2024, when Governor Healey signed “An Act Modernizing Firearms Laws” (Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024) on July 25, 2024. It took effect on October 23, 2024, with several pieces phasing in through 2026.¹

The 2024 law bans unserialized “ghost guns” and 3D-printed firearms, tightens the assault-style weapons ban, expands red flag orders, adds a live-fire component to licensing, and calls for an electronic firearms registration system. The electronic registration and serialization systems must be built within one year of the effective date, and gun owners then have another year after those systems go live to comply.¹

Getting Licensed

You need one of two licenses. A Firearm Identification Card (FID) covers long guns like rifles and shotguns. A License to Carry (LTC) covers handguns and also lets you possess long guns. Either one costs $100 to apply for or renew, and both must be renewed every six years, which triggers a fresh background check.²

The application runs through a state and federal background check, a fingerprint check, and a Department of Mental Health review.² New applicants also have to finish a state-approved basic firearms safety course. Since the 2024 law, that course must include live-fire training; classroom-only instruction no longer counts.³

The local police chief signs off on the license. Beyond the automatic disqualifiers set by statute, the chief also assesses general “suitability,” which can bring in things like community reputation and incidents that never resulted in charges.

Who Cannot Get a License

You are automatically disqualified if you have been convicted of a felony, are subject to a domestic violence restraining order, have been committed to an institution for mental illness, are being treated for drug addiction, are under 21 (for an LTC), or have an outstanding arrest warrant. A misdemeanor conviction that carries a possible sentence of more than two years also disqualifies you.

If You’re Denied

An applicant who is denied can appeal to the district court with jurisdiction over the police department that issued the denial. The appeal has to be filed within 90 days. A separate route to the Firearm Licensing Review Board exists if the denial was based on a qualifying misdemeanor conviction, but that route is closed if the denial was based on suitability or if the underlying conviction involved domestic assault, firearms, or drugs.⁴ Starting July 1, 2026, all petitions to the Review Board have to be filed online.

Storing Your Firearm

Any firearm you aren’t carrying or holding under your direct control has to be kept in a locked container or fitted with a tamper-resistant lock that stops anyone other than you or an authorized user from firing it.⁵ The same rule covers stun guns. A firearm you are actively carrying or have under immediate control does not count as “stored” for this rule.

This is one of the strictest storage mandates in the country. A handgun in an unlocked nightstand drawer violates the law even if you live alone.

Registration and Private Sales

All firearms in Massachusetts have to be registered through the state’s Gun Transaction Portal, which is run by the Firearms Records Bureau.⁶ Every private sale, transfer, inheritance, or new registration goes through that portal. The 2024 law also requires the state to build out an electronic firearms registration system, and once it is publicly available, all firearms will need to be entered into it.¹

Keeping your registration current after any sale or transfer is not optional. Falling behind can create real problems if a firearm is later connected to a crime or if you need to prove lawful ownership.

Banned Firearms and Modifications

Assault-Style Firearms and Large Capacity Feeding Devices

Massachusetts bans the possession, sale, transfer, or importation of assault-style firearms and large capacity feeding devices. The 2024 law swapped in the term “assault-style firearm” for “assault weapon” and tightened the definitions.⁷

Grandfathering exists but is narrow. If you lawfully possessed an assault-style firearm in Massachusetts before August 1, 2024, and you hold a valid LTC or dealer’s license, you can keep it, but you must register and serialize it under the new system. Large capacity feeding devices are grandfathered only if they were lawfully possessed on September 13, 1994, and even then their use is limited to private property, a licensed range, a shooting competition, or travel between those places. They also have to be stored unloaded in a locked container.⁷

A first offense carries a fine between $1,000 and $10,000, imprisonment from one to ten years, or both. A second offense: $5,000 to $15,000 in fines and five to fifteen years in prison.⁷

Ghost Guns and Unserialized Firearms

Possessing, manufacturing, selling, or importing an unserialized firearm is broadly illegal. That covers finished firearms without serial numbers and unfinished frames or receivers that have reached a stage where they could readily be built into a working weapon.

If you build a firearm privately, you have to obtain a unique serial number from the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services, engrave it on the firearm, and register the weapon, all within seven days of finishing assembly. Only LTC holders can use a 3D printer or CNC milling machine to make a firearm, and selling those machines when their primary purpose is firearms manufacturing is illegal. The law also bans covert firearms (disguised to look like something else) and undetectable firearms that don’t show up on standard metal detectors or security imaging.

Machine Guns and Rate-of-Fire Devices

The state defines a machine gun broadly, sweeping in any firearm modified to discharge more than one shot per trigger pull, or altered to mimic automatic fire. Bump stocks, trigger cranks, binary triggers, hellfire triggers, and similar rapid-fire trigger activators are all banned by name. Converting a semi-automatic weapon to fire automatically, or possessing the parts to do so, carries some of the harshest penalties in the state’s criminal code. Possession of a machine gun can result in a life sentence.⁸

Where You Cannot Carry

Carrying a firearm on school or university grounds is prohibited.⁹ The 2024 law expanded restrictions to additional public locations. Carrying in any prohibited area without explicit legal authorization is a criminal offense.

Reporting a Lost or Stolen Firearm

You must report a lost or stolen firearm within seven days through the electronic firearms registration system. The report goes to your local licensing authority or the state police where the gun is registered, and to the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services. Include the make, model, serial number, caliber, and whether it is a large capacity firearm.¹⁰ The system automatically notifies the licensing authority in the city where you live and the one where your license was issued.

Red Flag Orders (ERPO)

The state’s Extreme Risk Protection Order law lets a court act when someone is believed to pose a risk of bodily injury to themselves or others. An emergency ERPO can be issued without notifying the respondent, but it expires after 10 days unless the court sets a full hearing.¹¹ At the hearing, the respondent can contest the order. If the court issues a longer-term ERPO, the person has to surrender their license, ID card, and all firearms and ammunition until the court lifts the order.

Penalties

Massachusetts penalties are among the toughest in the country, and the mandatory minimums are where people are most often caught off guard.

Unlawful Possession

Carrying a firearm without a license is punishable by two and a half to five years in state prison, or 18 months to two and a half years in a county facility. The 18-month floor is a true mandatory minimum. It cannot be suspended, and the person is not eligible for probation, parole, work release, or good-conduct reductions until those 18 months are served.⁸

Repeat Offenses

A second conviction carries five to seven years in state prison. A third brings seven to ten years. A fourth triggers ten to fifteen years. None of these sentences can be suspended, and no good-conduct deductions apply.⁸

Illegal Trafficking

Penalties for knowingly distributing or selling firearms illegally scale with the number of weapons involved in a 12-month period:

One or two firearms: up to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
Three to nine firearms: up to 20 years in state prison with a five-year mandatory minimum, plus a possible fine of up to $100,000.
Ten or more firearms: up to life in state prison with a 10-year mandatory minimum, plus a possible fine of up to $150,000.

The fines in the higher tiers cannot substitute for the mandatory prison time.¹²

Self-Defense and Exemptions

Self-defense is a recognized defense to firearms charges, but the bar is high. You generally have to show you faced an imminent threat of serious bodily harm and that your response was proportional. Massachusetts does not have a stand-your-ground law: you have a duty to retreat if you can do so safely before using deadly force, with an exception inside your own home.

Active law enforcement officers and military personnel acting in their official capacity are not subject to many of the civilian restrictions. Antique firearms, typically defined as weapons made before 1899 or replicas that don’t use conventional ammunition, are exempt from most registration and licensing requirements.

Traveling With a Firearm

Flying out of Massachusetts with a firearm means following federal TSA rules: the gun must be unloaded and packed in a locked, hard-sided container in checked baggage, and you have to declare it to the airline at the counter each time. A firearm counts as loaded under federal rules if a live round or any component of a round is in the chamber, cylinder, or an inserted magazine, and the TSA treats a firearm as loaded when both the gun and ammunition are accessible to the passenger.¹³

Driving across state lines is a different problem. Massachusetts does not have reciprocity agreements with many other states, and your LTC or FID may not be recognized once you leave. Check the destination state’s rules before you travel.

Federal Law Sits on Top

A Massachusetts firearms violation can bring federal charges as well. Federal law bars anyone convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from possessing firearms, regardless of state law. A state conviction counts as a federal disqualifier unless it has been expunged, pardoned, or the person’s civil rights have been fully restored, and even then the pardon or restoration cannot include a firearms restriction.¹⁴

1
Mass.gov. Legal Update – An Act Modernizing Firearms Laws
2
Mass.gov. Apply for or Renew a Firearms License
3
Mass.gov. EOPSS Guidance – 2024 Firearms Act Memorandum
4
Mass.gov. Appeal a Firearms License Denial
5
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Code c.140 131L – Firearms Stored or Kept by Owner
6
Mass.gov. Record a Private Firearms Sale or Registration
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 140 Section 131M
8
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269 Section 10
9
Mass.gov. Massachusetts Law About Guns and Other Firearms
10
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c.140 121B
11
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 140 Section 131T
12
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269 Section 10E
13
Transportation Security Administration. Transporting Firearms and Ammunition
14
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269 Section 10