The rest of this guide follows the licensed carrier. This page picks up the parts of chapter 140 that path does not develop, most of them about...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
The rest of this guide follows the licensed carrier. This page picks up the parts of chapter 140 that path does not develop, most of them about commerce. Sections 122, 122B, 123, 125, 128, 128A and 128B govern who may sell a firearm, what a dealer owes you at the counter, and how a private owner may lawfully hand a firearm to someone else. Section 129D governs what happens to a firearm once it is in the licensing authority's hands, and section 121F supplies the dealer's appeal and revocation rules. Every section number below is Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140 unless another chapter is named, and chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024 replaced most of them, so the operative text is the replacement text.
Section 121 states that it defines its terms "As used in sections 122 to 131Y, inclusive." The commerce sections discussed below, sections 122 through 129D, all sit inside that range, so section 121 governs each of them by its own terms. Sections 121E and 121F, which this page also covers, sit outside it. Section 121's definition of "Firearm" names the 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", and it reaches "the frame or receiver of any such firearm or the unfinished frame or receiver of any such firearm". It excludes any antique firearm or permanently inoperable firearm. So when section 128A says a license-to-carry holder may transfer "firearms", that word carries rifles and shotguns with it, and it carries frames and receivers, finished or unfinished, into the same transfer rules. Where the same section separately names "rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semiautomatic", it is naming the narrower class an FID holder may move.
Section 122(a), as replaced by St. 2024, c. 135, SECTION 33, lets a licensing authority grant or renew a license to sell, rent, lease, purchase or otherwise transfer firearms and ammunition, or to be a gunsmith, "to any person 21 years of age or older who is neither a prohibited person nor deemed unsuitable" under section 121F "and who completes the online dealer training classes mandated under section 125." Section 122(b) ties the license to one address. It must specify the street and number of the building where the business is carried on, it "shall not protect a licensee who carries on their business in any other place", and it does not entitle the holder to possess or carry any firearm or ammunition outside the licensed premises. A dealer's license is not a carry license.
Section 125 as rewritten by SECTION 38 creates that online program. Subsection (b) requires an applicant for the issuance or renewal of a section 122 license to sell to complete a dealer training program developed and offered online by the executive office of public safety and security, and bars the licensing authority from accepting or processing an application for the issuance of a license to sell without a certification of program completion. The rewrite arrived late. SECTION 159 of the 2024 act, as replaced by St. 2024, c. 206, SECTION 51, provides that "Sections 38 and 74 shall take effect 18 months after the effective date of this act." The published text of section 125 fixes what that formula means: it prints the old forfeiture and suspension section as the text effective until January 25, 2026, and the rewritten training section as the text effective January 25, 2026. That date is now behind us, so the rewritten section 125 is the operative one and the section 122(a) training precondition is live. Existing paper is preserved separately, because SECTION 153 keeps a valid section 122 license to sell, like a valid license to carry or FID, valid until it expires or is suspended or revoked.
Section 122B covers clubs. Under subsection (a) a lawfully incorporated sporting or shooting club may be licensed to sell or supply ammunition for regulated shooting on its own premises, and that license must be issued to and exercised by an officer or duly authorized member who holds a license to carry or firearm identification card and who would not be disqualified under section 121F. Subsection (b) separately lets the state police, after an investigation, license a club or facility incorporated under Massachusetts law, with an on-site shooting range or gallery, to possess, store and use large capacity firearms, ammunition and feeding devices on the club premises. That license comes with provisos. Not less than 1 shareholder of the club must be qualified and suitable to be issued a license to carry under section 121F, and the club's large firearms may be used under the club license only by a member who holds a valid license to carry firearms issued under section 131, or by another person the club permits while under the direct supervision of a certified firearms safety instructor or a club member who holds a valid license to carry firearms. Subsection (c) then binds the club. One of its rules will surprise a defensive shooter: the club may not permit shooting at targets that depict human figures, effigies, silhouettes or any human images, except by public safety personnel performing in line with their official duties. Under section 122B(e), selling ammunition in Massachusetts without a license under section 122 or section 122B draws a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, or imprisonment for not less than 6 months nor more than 2 years.
Section 123, as replaced by SECTION 37, is the operating manual for a section 122 licensee, and much of it protects the customer. Subsections (b) through (e) require a business premise that is not a residential dwelling, display of the license where it can easily be read, and a notice at each purchase counter carrying DCJIS safe transportation and storage information plus suicide prevention information. Subsection (c) also forbids displaying any firearm in an outer window of the business premises or in any other place where it can be readily seen from outside.
Subsection (f) makes verification a precondition of every transaction. Before any transfer the licensee must verify the status of the license, card, permit or exemption documentation and that the person presenting it is its lawful holder, and "No transfer of any firearm or ammunition shall be made to any person not in possession of the required license, card, permit or exemption documentation at the time of the transaction."
Subsection (g) is the provision most likely to catch an ordinary customer. If you present an expired, suspended or revoked license, card or permit, the dealer must immediately report the attempted transaction to DCJIS through the electronic firearms registration system, take possession of the credential and forward it to the licensing authority for the city or town where the dealer does business, and issue you a receipt on a DCJIS form recording all of that. The receipt "shall be valid for 90 days for the purpose of providing immunity from prosecution under section 10 of chapter 269". The dealer must also notify you of your duty to surrender your firearms forthwith to your local licensing authority under section 129D, and is immune from liability for good faith compliance.
Subsection (h) requires a transaction record, open at all times to police inspection and entered before transfer or delivery, describing the firearm and ammunition, the nature and date of the transaction, and the acquirer. Subsection (h) does not apply to a gunsmith with regard to repair, remodeling or servicing of firearms unless the gunsmith has manufactured a firearm for the purchaser, though the gunsmith must still keep records of the work with customer names and addresses. Subsection (i) requires immediate reporting to DCJIS of any loss or theft of a firearm or ammunition from the licensee or the premises. Subsection (j) permits sales or transfers at any regular meeting of an incorporated collectors club or at a gun show open to the general public, in compliance with the rest of section 123 and with federal and state law. Subsection (k) bars filling any order received by mail, facsimile, telephone, internet or other telecommunication "unless such transaction includes the in-person presentation of the required license, card, permit or documentation", and exempts transactions between federally licensed dealers. Subsection (l) requires firearms and ammunition to be unloaded when delivered, and delivered only to a person holding the proper credential.
Subsection (m) grades the section. A licensee, or an employee or agent of a licensee, who violates section 123 shall be punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000, by imprisonment for not less than 1 year nor more than 10 years, or by both. Subsection (n) requires the local licensing authority to inspect a licensee's premises, records and inventory at least once per calendar year, and makes a violation grounds for suspension or revocation.
Subsections (o) and (p) of section 123 restrict what a section 122 licensee may put in your hands at all. Under subsection (o), a licensee shall not sell, rent, lease or otherwise transfer a firearm described in that subsection "except to a business entity that is primarily a firearm wholesaler", and the transfer must by its terms prohibit the purchaser from reselling the firearm to a firearm retailer or consumer in Massachusetts. Clause (i) reaches a firearm whose frame, barrel, cylinder, slide or breechblock is composed of any metal with a melting point of less than 900 degrees Fahrenheit, any metal with an ultimate tensile strength of less than 55,000 pounds per square inch, or any powdered metal with a density of less than 7.5 grams per cubic centimeter. That clause does not apply to a make and model for which a sample of 3 firearms in new condition all pass the 600-round endurance test the clause sets out, with cleaning and tightening pauses and a defined malfunction allowance. Clause (ii) reaches a firearm that is prone to accidental discharge, which the clause defines through a test in which sample firearms in new condition are test loaded, set so that pulling the trigger would fire them, and dropped onto a solid slab of concrete from a height of 1 meter in each of the positions the clause lists. Clause (iii) reaches a firearm prone to firing more than once per pull of the trigger, or to explosion during firing.
Clause (iv) is different in kind, and it is the one that puts a duty on the dealer toward you. It reaches a firearm with a barrel less than 3 inches in length, "unless the licensee discloses in writing, prior to the transaction, to the prospective buyer, lessee or transferee the limitations of the accuracy of the particular make and model of the subject firearm", by disclosing that make and model's average group diameter test result at 7 yards, at 14 yards and at 21 yards. So a short-barrelled handgun is not barred from retail sale by clause (iv). It is conditioned on that written accuracy disclosure being made to you before the transaction. The clause defines an average group diameter test result as the arithmetic mean of separate trials, each run on a different sample firearm of that make and model in new condition, in which the firearm fires 5 rounds at a target from a set distance and the largest spread in inches between the centers of the holes made in the test target is measured and recorded.
Subsection (p) provides that subsection (o) "shall not apply to" a firearm lawfully owned or possessed under a license issued under chapter 140 on or before October 21, 1998, a stun gun, or a firearm designated by the secretary of public safety, with the advice of the firearm control advisory board established under section 131 1/2, as solely designed and sold for formal target shooting competition or for Olympic shooting competition and listed on the rosters under section 131 3/4.
Section 128A, as replaced by SECTION 41, is the private transfer rule. It names a person with a license to carry under section 131, who may sell or transfer firearms and ammunition, and a person with a firearm identification card under section 129B, who may sell or transfer rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semiautomatic and ammunition. Subsection (a) opens the unlimited channel for both, to a person with a license to sell issued under section 122, to a federally licensed dealer, or to a federal, state or local historical society, museum or institutional collection open to the public, "without an annual limit on transfers."
Subsection (b) opens the person-to-person channel. Either transferor may transfer to a person with a license to carry under section 131, to an exempted person if permitted under section 129C, or to a person with a firearm identification card under section 129B. That channel is capped: "no more than 4 firearm transfers shall occur per calendar year". The FID clause carries its own condition, that for transfers and purchases of firearms outside the class of rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semiautomatic, the transferee must also hold a valid permit to purchase under section 131A. That permit, its proper-purpose standard, its ten-day validity and its $100 fee are covered in the permit basics section.
Subsection (c) names a different set of transferors on different terms: an heir or devisee upon the death of a firearm or ammunition owner, a person in the military, police officers and other peace officers, a veteran's organization and historical society, museums and institutional collections open to the public. Clause (i) lets them sell or transfer firearms and ammunition to a federally licensed firearms dealer, or to a federal, state or local historical society, museum or institutional collection open to the public, and states no annual limit. A person with a license to sell issued under section 122, whom subsection (a) names as a recipient, is not named in clause (i). Clause (ii) lets them "sell or transfer no more than 4 firearms and ammunition therefor per calendar year" to a person with a license to carry under section 131, an exempted person under section 129C, or a person with a firearm identification card under section 129B. Note the unit: subsection (b) caps firearm transfers, clause (c)(ii) caps firearms. Clause (ii) closes with the same section 131A condition, that for transfers and purchases of firearms outside the class of rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semi-automatic, the transferee shall have a valid permit to purchase under section 131A.
On the buying side, subsection (d) lets a section 131 license holder purchase or transfer firearms and ammunition from a dealer licensed under section 122 or from a person permitted to sell under section 128A. Subsection (e) gives the same authority to a person with a firearm identification card under section 129B "who is over 18 years of age", limited to rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semi-automatic and ammunition. Subsection (f) adds a narrow collector route: a bona fide collector of firearms, which section 121 defines as "a licensed collector pursuant to 18 U.S.C. section 923(b)", may buy from a section 122 dealer a curio or relic firearm as defined in section 121 that was not previously owned or registered in Massachusetts.
Subsection (g) routes all of it. Every purchase, sale or transfer of a firearm permitted under section 128A must, prior to or at the point of sale, be conducted through the electronic firearms registration system under section 121B. The seller submits identification information for both sides, the system reviews it and displays a message indicating whether the seller may proceed, and both parties get verification.
Section 128B, as replaced by SECTION 42, catches acquisitions outside those channels. A Massachusetts resident who obtains a firearm from any source inside or outside the commonwealth other than from a section 122 licensee or a person authorized to sell under section 128A, and a nonresident who does the same and receives the firearm within the commonwealth, must register the firearm and report the information required under sections 121B and 121C. A violation draws, for a first offense, a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, and for any subsequent offense, imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 10 years.
Section 128, first paragraph as replaced by SECTION 40, then sets the offense for selling outside the licensed channels. A person who, without being licensed under section 122 or exempt as provided under section 129C, sells, rents, leases or otherwise transfers a firearm, or is engaged in business as a gunsmith, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000, or by imprisonment for not less than 1 year nor more than 10 years, or by both. The same paragraph reaches the licensed side: a person licensed under section 122 or 122B who sells or furnishes a firearm or ammunition to a person without a firearm license, card or permit loses the license, may not apply again for 10 years, and faces the same fine range along with imprisonment in a state prison for not more than 10 years or a house of correction for not more than 2 1/2 years, or both. That sentence does not end there. It closes with a proviso "that a valid permit to purchase issued under section 131A may permit certain firearm transfers to persons over 18 years of age", so a section 131A permit transaction is not what the offense is aimed at.
The surrender duty in section 129D(a) and the one-year right to transfer surrendered property are covered in the under-the-influence and use-of-force sections. Subsections (b) through (e) of section 129D, as replaced by SECTION 46, hold the storage and disposal machinery, and that is what this page adds. Subsection (f), which requires the licensing authority to report deliveries, surrenders and seizures made under sections 131R to 131Y to DCJIS, belongs to the extreme risk protection order machinery covered in the red flag section. Subsection (g) is a rulemaking grant to the secretary of the executive office of public safety and security.
Subsection (b) lets a licensing authority holding a firearm or ammunition transfer possession for storage to a federally licensed dealer operating a bonded warehouse on the licensed premises, but not where the property may be evidence in a pending criminal investigation. That dealer must inspect the property and issue the owner a receipt showing the make, model, caliber, serial number and condition of each item. The owner is liable to the dealer for reasonable storage charges.
Subsection (c) is the base disposal rule, and it is the one an owner should read first. Firearms and ammunition not disposed of within 1 year of delivery or surrender under section 129D are sold at public auction by the colonel of the state police to the highest bidding person legally permitted to purchase and possess them, and the proceeds are remitted to the General Fund.
Subsection (d) sets who may send stored property to that auction: the licensing authority at the expiration of 1 year following initial surrender or delivery, or the dealer then in possession if storage charges have been in arrears for 90 days. In either case title passes to the licensed dealer for the purpose of transferring ownership to the auctioneer. In either case, after deduction and payment for storage charges and all necessary costs, surplus proceeds go back to the owner immediately, which is the opposite of the General Fund rule in subsection (c). Property identified under section 131Q as having been used to carry out a criminal act, and property prohibited by law from being owned or possessed in Massachusetts, may not be auctioned under section 129D and must instead be destroyed by the colonel of the state police.
Subsection (e) reaches a narrower class of property. Unless otherwise required in chapter 140, if the licensing authority cannot reasonably ascertain a lawful owner within 180 days of acquisition by the licensing authority, it may, in its discretion, trade or dispose of surplus, donated, abandoned or junk firearms or ammunition to properly licensed distributors or firearms dealers. Proceeds of that sale or transfer are remitted or credited to the municipality in which the licensing authority presides, to purchase firearms, equipment or supplies or for violence reduction or suicide prevention. A firearm or ammunition identified under section 131Q as having been used to carry out a criminal act is not surplus, donated, abandoned or junk for the purposes of section 129D.
Denials, revocations and suspensions of the carrier credentials are covered in the application process, renewal and permit basics sections. The application process section also carries the section 121F(l) rule that a licensing authority's only route to an unsuitability denial of a firearm identification card application is a petition to the district court, and it sets out the section 121F(v)(3) standard a district court applies on a petition for judicial review under section 121F(v)(2). What belongs here is the dealer's own track.
Section 121F(v)(1) is the dealer route, and by its terms it reaches only a license to sell under section 122 or section 122B. An applicant or licensee aggrieved by a denial, revocation or suspension of a license to sell under section 122 or section 122B may apply to the colonel of state police within 10 days, and the colonel may direct the licensing authority to grant the license if, after a hearing, the colonel determines that there were no reasonable grounds for the action and that the applicant is not barred by law from holding it. The alternative is a district court appeal under section 121F(v)(2), where the section 121F(v)(3) standard set out in the application process section governs.
Before any of that, section 121F(u)(1) puts a condition on the licensing authority itself: it "may revoke or suspend any license issued under sections 122 or 122B only after due notice to the licensee and reasonable opportunity to be heard." A firearm identification card is protected differently by the same subsection, through a mandatory petition to the district court, which the renewal section covers, and section 121F(u)(2) requires that any revocation or suspension of a card, permit or license issued under sections 122, 122B, 122D, 129B, 131 or 131F be in writing and state the reasons for it.
Section 121F(u)(2) also supplies the consequence that makes the dealer appeal worth taking. If a license to sell issued under section 122 or section 122B is revoked, the licensee is disqualified to receive a license for 1 year after the expiration of the term of the license so revoked. That is a different bar from the 10-year bar in section 128, which applies to a section 122 or 122B licensee who sells or furnishes a firearm or ammunition to a person without a firearm license, card or permit.
Section 129C's exemptions are read closely in the reciprocity, constitutional carry and duty to inform sections. One subsection is not discussed there, and it matters to boaters and to anyone using powder-actuated tools. Section 129C(h) provides that no license, permit or card under chapter 140 is required for a legal resident of the commonwealth over the age of 18 to carry or possess a firearm known as a detonator commonly used on vehicles as a signaling and marking device, and only when carried or possessed for those purposes, or any device used exclusively for signaling or distress use and required or recommended by the United States Coast Guard or the Interstate Commerce Commission, or for the firing of stud cartridges, explosive rivets or similar industrial ammunition. The residency requirement, the age floor and the purpose limitation travel with it.
Section 121E imposes no obligation on a license holder. Subsection (a) directs DCJIS to collect, assemble and publish data relating to the use of firearms in Massachusetts, and subsection (b) requires state and local agencies to give timely access to requested information. Subsection (c) requires a public online dashboard of non-personally identifying data, updated at least quarterly, covering aggregate issuance and denial data under sections 129B, 131 and 131F plus aggregate data on firearm-involved violence.
St. 2024, c. 135, SECTION 59 provides that section 131E of chapter 140 "is hereby repealed", and the published text of section 131E now carries only the notation of that repeal. Section 131F was not conformed to it. Chapter 135 amended section 131F only in pieces, through SECTIONS 60, 61, 62 and 63, none of which touched the cross-reference, which is why the text still says a temporary license to carry "shall not be used to purchase firearms in the commonwealth as provided in section 131E." Read that cross-reference as pointing at a repealed provision. The same is true of section 131G, repealed by SECTION 64 while MGL c. 269, s. 10(a) still names it, which the constitutional carry and concealed carry sections cover.
Section 128 has the same problem inside itself. SECTION 40 struck and replaced only the first paragraph, so the second paragraph survives unamended: "Evidence that a person sold or attempted to sell a machine gun without being licensed under section one hundred and twenty-three shall, in a prosecution under this section, constitute prima facie evidence that such person is engaged in the business of selling machine guns." It still points at section 123 as the section a machine gun seller would be licensed under. Section 122 is the section under which a license to sell is granted, and section 123 sets the conditions that a person holding a section 122 license must meet. The replacement first paragraph carries a nearly identical prima facie sentence with no section number in it at all.
| Topic | Section of this guide |
|---|---|
| Eligibility, prohibited persons, section 121F | Application Process, Overview |
| The section 121F(l) FID unsuitability petition | Application Process, Renewal Process, Overview |
| The section 121F(v)(3) court standard | Application Process, Overview |
| The section 131A permit to purchase | Permit Basics, Fees and Costs |
| Registration and serialization, sections 121B and 121C | Restrictions, Storage |
| Assault-style firearms, feeding devices, machine guns | Restrictions, NFA Items |
| Surrender duty, section 129D(a) | Under the Influence, Use of Force |
| Extreme risk protection orders, section 129D(f) | Red Flag |
| Self-defense spray, section 122D | Use of Force, Permit Basics |
This page states what the cited statutes say. A court or licensing authority may apply them to your facts differently, so talk to a Massachusetts attorney before acting on it.
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