Massachusetts puts the in-vehicle rule in its own statute. MGL c. 140, s. 131C, "Carrying of firearms in a vehicle," runs to four subsections. Two of...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Massachusetts puts the in-vehicle rule in its own statute. MGL c. 140, s. 131C, "Carrying of firearms in a vehicle," runs to four subsections. Two of them carry the rules a licensed carrier meets most often, and they do different work. Subsection (a) governs a loaded firearm and turns on direct control. Subsection (b) governs a large capacity rifle or shotgun and turns on being unloaded and locked up. Firearm is a defined term that now includes rifles and shotguns, so subsection (a) is not a handgun rule. They reach different license classes and are not one rule.
This page covers carrying on your person or having a firearm under your control in a vehicle, what changes when it leaves your control, and the rule for a non-resident driving through. For moving firearms generally, including long guns, recreation vehicles and the federal interstate transport rule, see the transport section.
MGL c. 140, s. 131C(a) provides: "No person carrying a loaded firearm under a license issued pursuant to section 129B 131 or 131F or through an exemption under section 129C shall carry the loaded firearm in a vehicle unless the loaded firearm while carried in the vehicle is under the direct control of the person. Whoever violates this subsection shall be punished by a fine of $500."
MGL c. 140, s. 131C(b) provides: "No person possessing a large capacity rifle or shotgun under a license issued pursuant to section 131 or 131F or through an exemption under section 129C shall possess the large capacity firearm in a vehicle unless the large capacity firearm is unloaded and secured in a locked container as defined in section 121. Whoever violates this subsection shall be punished by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000."
Which firearms subsection (a) reaches is settled by a definition, and the definition changed in 2024. St. 2024, c. 135, s. 20 struck the old definition of "Firearm" in MGL c. 140, s. 121 and put a new one in its place. Firearm now means "a stun gun, pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, large capacity firearm, assault-style firearm and machine gun, loaded or unloaded, which is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a shot or bullet," along with the frame or receiver of any such firearm, and excluding an antique or permanently inoperable firearm.
Rifles and shotguns sit inside that definition. Section 121 opens "As used in sections 122 to 131Y, inclusive," so that definition governs section 131C and section 131L by its own terms. Subsection (a) is therefore not the handgun rule and subsection (b) is not the long gun rule. Subsection (b) reaches only a large capacity rifle or shotgun. A loaded rifle or shotgun that is not large capacity is governed by subsection (a), so the condition s. 131C puts on it is direct control rather than subsection (b)'s unload-and-lock requirement. That is a condition, not a permission. The authority to have the long gun in the first place still has to come from an FID under s. 129B, a license under s. 131 or s. 131F, or an exemption under s. 129C. Once that rifle or shotgun leaves the vehicle it runs into a different statute: MGL c. 269, s. 12D(a) bars carrying a loaded rifle or shotgun "on his person on any public way." Section 12D(a) is written in terms of carrying "on his person on any public way." Section 131C is the statute written for the vehicle. Neither section says whether a person seated in a car on a public road is carrying on their person on a public way, so do not assume s. 12D drops away the moment you are inside the vehicle. Meet the s. 131C condition, and treat s. 12D as live the moment the long gun is on your person outside the car.
One s. 121 definition turns on the vehicle itself, and it can move a gun from subsection (a) into subsection (b) while you are driving. "Large capacity firearm" includes any firearm that "(ii) is semiautomatic and capable of accepting, or readily modifiable to accept, any detachable large capacity feeding device when both are in the same person's possession or under their control in a vehicle." A semiautomatic that is not otherwise a large capacity firearm becomes one under that clause when the gun and a detachable large capacity feeding device are under the same person's control in the car. That is what pulls in subsection (b)'s unload-and-lock command, and MGL c. 269, s. 10(m) separately reaches a person who "knowingly has under his control in a vehicle, a large capacity firearm or large capacity feeding device therefor" without a license to carry under s. 131 or s. 131F. The designation is a secondary one under the same definition, and it does not apply to a firearm that operates by manual bolt, pump, lever or slide action, that is a single-shot firearm, that has been permanently modified so it can no longer be designated large capacity, or that is an antique, relic, theatrical prop or other firearm not capable of firing a projectile.
Read the license lists closely. Subsection (a) names s. 129B, the firearm identification card, alongside s. 131 and s. 131F. Subsection (b) does not name s. 129B at all. That asymmetry is not a drafting slip. Under MGL c. 140, s. 129B(c), an FID "shall entitle a holder thereof to purchase, transfer, possess and carry rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semi-automatic," and "shall not entitle a holder thereof to transfer, possess or carry any other firearm including any large capacity firearm, any large capacity or semiautomatic rifle or any large capacity or semiautomatic shotgun," outside supervised range use. The same subsection closes with the sentence that speaks directly to moving one: "Except as otherwise provided herein, a firearm identification card shall not be valid for the use, possession, ownership, transfer, purchase, sale, lease, rental or transportation of any large capacity firearm." An FID holder has no lawful path to a large capacity long gun, so s. 131C(b) has no reason to name it.
The amendment history says the same thing more directly. St. 2024, c. 135, s. 54 amended s. 131C by inserting the number 129B after the word "section" in line 2, which is subsection (a). Section 55 of the same act inserted the words "or through an exemption under section 129C" in lines 2 and 7, reaching both subsections. The legislature amended both subsections when it meant to and added s. 129B to subsection (a) alone. The missing comma in "section 129B 131 or 131F" is an artifact of inserting a bare number after the word "section," and the only available reading is a three-item list.
Neither subsection grants carry authority. Section 131C conditions carry that is already authorized somewhere else, by a license under s. 131 or s. 131F, by an FID under s. 129B, or by an exemption under s. 129C. If that authority is missing, the charge is not a s. 131C fine. It is MGL c. 269, s. 10.
Section 131C(c) exempts specified government, military and municipal law enforcement personnel who are "authorized by a competent authority" and acting within official duties. Section 131C(d) attaches a licensing consequence to any conviction: the licensing authority "shall immediately revoke the firearm identification card or license of the person convicted," and no new card or license may issue "until 1 year after the date of revocation."
MGL c. 140, s. 121 defines "Secured in a locked container" as "secured in a container that is capable of being unlocked only by means of a key, combination or similar means, including in an unoccupied motor vehicle, a locked trunk not accessible from the passenger compartment, a locked console or locked glovebox and for purposes of a common carrier in the course of the regular and ordinary transport of firearms, locked access to any area containing firearms."
Executive Office of Public Safety and Security guidance on the 2024 Act answers the obvious follow-up. Asked whether that definition includes a locked vehicle, EOPSS states: "No. However, the definition does include a locked, secure container inside of a vehicle, such as a locked glovebox, locked console, or locked trunk inaccessible from the passenger compartment."
Locking the car doors satisfies nothing. The container has to sit inside the vehicle and lock on its own.
An LTC under MGL c. 140, s. 131(a) entitles the holder "to purchase, rent, lease, borrow, possess and carry firearms, including large capacity firearms and ammunition therefor," but not "to transfer, possess or carry large capacity feeding devices or assault-style firearms unless such transfer, possession or carry is permitted under section 131M."
For the LTC holder driving with a loaded handgun, s. 131C(a) supplies the operative condition: the loaded firearm must be under the person's direct control while carried in the vehicle. The statute does not define direct control, and it does not require a licensee to unload or lock away a loaded handgun that is under direct control in the vehicle. Because the statute sets no method, carrying on the body in a holster is the conservative practice rather than a statutory standard.
Section 131C(b) turns entirely on the firearm. For a large capacity rifle or shotgun, direct control does not help. That firearm has to be unloaded and secured in a locked container as defined in s. 121, and an LTC holder driving it around is squarely inside the subsection. A rifle or shotgun that is not large capacity falls outside subsection (b) and back under subsection (a), where the condition is direct control.
MGL c. 269, s. 10(a) closes with its own protection: "No person having in effect a license to carry firearms for any purpose, issued under section one hundred and thirty-one or section one hundred and thirty-one F of chapter one hundred and forty shall be deemed to be in violation of this section."
The moment you step out and the firearm stays behind, you are storing it, and MGL c. 140, s. 131L takes over.
Section 131L(a) makes it "unlawful to store or keep any firearm in any place unless such firearm is secured in a locked container or equipped with a tamper-resistant mechanical lock or other safety device, properly engaged so as to render such firearm inoperable by any person other than the owner or other lawfully authorized user." The same subsection supplies the hinge: a firearm "shall not be deemed stored or kept if carried by or under the control of the owner or other lawfully authorized user."
That is the whole transition. Under your control, it is carrying and s. 131C(a) governs. Out of your control, it is storage under s. 131L, and the container has to be a real one inside the car.
The prohibited area statute uses the same structure. MGL c. 269, s. 10(k)(1) punishes possessing a firearm in a prohibited area where the person "knows or reasonably should know such location is a prohibited area." Section 10(k)(4) makes it a defense that a person holding the necessary license or card under s. 129B, s. 131 or s. 131F "securely stored said firearm in a vehicle while within the prohibited area in accordance with sections 131C and 131L of chapter 140." That is how a licensed carrier lawfully drives onto ground where carrying is barred. The exemption clause at s. 10(k)(5) was amended by St. 2025, c. 14, s. 52, effective August 5, 2025, and that amended text is operative.
MGL c. 269, s. 10(a) reaches whoever "knowingly has in his possession; or knowingly has under his control in a vehicle; a firearm, loaded or unloaded," absent a listed exception such as being in or on his residence or place of business, holding an LTC under s. 131 or s. 131F, or having complied with MGL c. 140, s. 129C and s. 131G. One half of that fourth route no longer exists: St. 2024, c. 135, SECTION 64 provides that "Section 131G of said chapter 140 is hereby repealed," while the text of section 10(a) still names it. A parallel clause reaches whoever knowingly "has under control in a vehicle" a rifle or shotgun without one of its own listed bases, such as being in or on his residence or place of business, an LTC under s. 131 or s. 131F, an FID under s. 129B, or compliance with s. 129C.
The phrase "under his control in a vehicle" does the heavy lifting. It is not limited to what is on your body. Section 10 does not define control, and s. 10(o) defines only "loaded," but a firearm within reach in the passenger compartment of a car you are driving is the case that language most plainly covers.
The grading is severe. A s. 10(a) violation carries "imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two and one-half years nor more than five years, or for not less than 18 months nor more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction." The sentence "shall not be reduced to less than 18 months, nor suspended," and probation, parole, work release, furlough and good conduct deductions are unavailable until 18 months are served. Prosecutions "shall neither be continued without a finding nor placed on file."
MGL c. 269, s. 10(m) runs the same control-in-a-vehicle language for large capacity items: a person "who knowingly has in his possession, or knowingly has under his control in a vehicle, a large capacity firearm or large capacity feeding device therefor" without a valid LTC under s. 131 or s. 131F faces "imprisonment in a state prison for not less than two and one-half years nor more than ten years." An FID is expressly not a defense, though an FID holder charged under the paragraph escapes the mandatory minimum. Section 10(n) adds a consecutive house of correction term of up to two and one-half years where the paragraph (a) violation was "by means of a loaded firearm," and s. 10(o) defines "loaded" for the section as "ammunition is contained in the weapon or within a feeding device attached thereto."
MGL c. 140, s. 129C(k) is the non-resident in-vehicle rule: "A nonresident may carry a firearm on their person while in a vehicle lawfully traveling through the commonwealth; provided, however, that the firearm shall remain in the vehicle and if the firearm is outside its owner's direct control it shall be stored in the vehicle in accordance with section 131C."
Two limits sit inside that sentence. The firearm stays in the vehicle, so the allowance ends at the door. And once it is outside the owner's direct control it has to be stored per s. 131C, which for a large capacity rifle or shotgun means unloaded and in a locked container as s. 121 defines it.
For any other firearm, that referral leads nowhere useful. Subsection (b) is the only part of s. 131C carrying a locked container rule, and it reaches only a large capacity rifle or shotgun. Subsection (a) states no storage standard at all. It forbids carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle unless the firearm is under the person's direct control. So the non-resident who parks and walks away from a loaded handgun does not get a compliance path out of s. 131C. What is left is the s. 131C(a) prohibition. What avoids exposure is unloading the firearm and securing it in a locked container inside the vehicle, which under the s. 121 definition includes a locked glovebox, a locked console, or a locked trunk not accessible from the passenger compartment, and which is also what s. 131L(a) requires of a firearm no longer carried by or under the control of its owner.
The agency text and the statute diverge on exactly this point, so read both. EOPSS block quotes subsection (k) in its answer to question 36 and renders the referral as storage "in accordance with sections 131C and 131L." The codified text of s. 129C(k) and the session law that created it both say "in accordance with section 131C." The statute is what controls. The two-section formula is still the safe course, because s. 131L supplies the storage standard that s. 131C alone does not, and because the legislature itself used that same two-section formula in the neighboring s. 129C(j)(iii) and in MGL c. 269, s. 10(k)(4).
The harder limit is what "traveling through the commonwealth" means, and that same question 36 answers it in two parts that belong together. Restrictive: "Going to your workplace would not be 'traveling through the commonwealth' under Commonwealth v. Marquis, 494 Mass. 434 (2025)." Permissive, in the same answer: "Brief stops incidental to travel appear to be permissible provided the firearm is properly secured in the vehicle."
Reading those two halves together, subsection (k) works as a pass-through provision rather than a commuting provision. That is a conclusion drawn from the Marquis result EOPSS states, not a phrase from the statute, and the brief-stops allowance in the same answer stays part of it.
The LTC route is also closed to most non-residents. Asked whether non-resident business owners are eligible, EOPSS answers that they "are no longer eligible for a license to carry." The operative statutory limit is the applicant clause. MGL c. 140, s. 131(d) limits LTC applications to "A lawful resident 21 years of age or older residing within the jurisdiction of the licensing authority," a law enforcement officer employed by that authority, or a person residing in an area of exclusive federal jurisdiction within a city or town. EOPSS states the same rule in general terms in the same guidance: "Applicants can only apply for or renew a firearms license in the city/town where they reside, or a non-resident of the Commonwealth through the Firearms Records Bureau."
What remains is the temporary license under MGL c. 140, s. 131F, issued by the colonel of state police and "valid for a period of one year but the colonel may renew such license if such renewal is necessary." It is marked "Temporary License to Carry Firearms," cannot be used to purchase firearms in the commonwealth, and permits carry of a large capacity firearm only if that entitlement is clearly indicated on the license.
For long guns, MGL c. 140, s. 129C(j)(iii) separately covers a non-resident possessing rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semi-automatic "while traveling in or through the commonwealth; provided, that [they] shall be unloaded and in a locked container pursuant to sections 131C and 131L."
MGL c. 269, s. 10H reaches a licensee specifically, and it reaches control in a vehicle, not only carry on the person. It applies to "Whoever, having in effect a license to carry firearms issued under section 131 or 131F of chapter 140, carries on his person, or has under his control in a vehicle, a loaded firearm" while at or above a blood alcohol percentage by weight of eight one-hundredths, or while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, marijuana, or narcotic, depressant or stimulant substances as defined in MGL c. 94C, s. 1, or of toxic vapors under MGL c. 270, s. 18.
Section 131C stops at the vehicle door. Once you are out of the car on foot, MGL c. 269, s. 12D(a) bars carrying "on his person on any public way a loaded rifle or shotgun having cartridges or shells in either the magazine or chamber thereof," and s. 12D(b) bars carrying an unloaded rifle or shotgun on a public way "unless such rifle or shotgun is enclosed in a case." Section 12D(d) exempts specified on-duty government, military and law enforcement personnel and "a person who is lawfully engaged in hunting and is the holder of a valid hunting or sporting license issued pursuant to chapter 131." That is chapter 131 of the General Laws, the hunting and wildlife chapter, and not the MGL c. 140, s. 131 license to carry cited throughout this page.
| Conduct | Statute | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Loaded firearm in a vehicle, not under direct control | c. 140, s. 131C(a) | $500 |
| Large capacity rifle or shotgun in a vehicle, not unloaded and locked | c. 140, s. 131C(b) | $500 to $5,000 |
| Any s. 131C conviction | c. 140, s. 131C(d) | Immediate revocation; no new card or license for 1 year |
| Firearm under control in a vehicle, no license, card or exemption | c. 269, s. 10(a) | State prison 2.5 to 5 years, or 18 months to 2.5 years in jail or house of correction; not reducible below 18 months, not suspendable |
| Paragraph (a) violation by means of a loaded firearm | c. 269, s. 10(n) | Up to 2.5 years house of correction, consecutive |
| Large capacity firearm or feeding device in a vehicle, no LTC | c. 269, s. 10(m) | State prison 2.5 to 10 years; not reducible below 1 year |
| Firearm possessed in a prohibited area | c. 269, s. 10(k)(1) | Up to $1,000, or up to 2.5 years, or both |
| Improper storage, not large capacity or machine gun | c. 140, s. 131L(b) | $1,000 to $7,500, or up to 1.5 years, or both |
| Improper storage, large capacity or semiautomatic weapon or machine gun | c. 140, s. 131L(b) | $2,000 to $15,000, or 1.5 to 12 years, or both |
| Licensee, loaded firearm under control in a vehicle while impaired | c. 269, s. 10H | Up to $5,000, or up to 2.5 years, or both |
| Loaded rifle or shotgun on the person on a public way | c. 269, s. 12D(a) | $500 to $5,000, or up to 2 years, or both; large capacity, $1,000 to $10,000, or 1 to 10 years, or both |
| Unloaded rifle or shotgun on a public way, not in a case | c. 269, s. 12D(b) | $100 to $1,000; if it is a large capacity firearm carried at the same time as a fully or partially loaded large capacity feeding device, $1,000 to $10,000, or 1 to 10 years, or both |
Eligibility, fees and renewal now sit in MGL c. 140, s. 121F, which St. 2024, c. 135 added when it restructured s. 131. Section 131 runs only from subsection (a) through subsection (h), so any citation to a s. 131 subsection past (h) points at text that no longer exists. The same act amended s. 131C in five places, one of which swapped the older "locked trunk of the vehicle or in a locked case or other secure container" language for "secured in a locked container as defined in section 121."
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