Most people cannot get a Massachusetts firearm identification card (FID) or license to carry (LTC) without a basic firearms safety certificate. MGL c....
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Most people cannot get a Massachusetts firearm identification card (FID) or license to carry (LTC) without a basic firearms safety certificate. MGL c. 140, § 131P sets out the requirement and its narrow exceptions, and the law behind the certificate has been rewritten. Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, "An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws," struck § 131P at SECTION 74 and inserted a new version. The malegislature.gov page labels that replacement "[t]ext of section as amended by 2024, 135, Sec. 74 effective January 25, 2026," and prints the older version as the text effective until that date. The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security tells licensing authorities that section 74 takes effect April 2, 2026. The new version adds a statewide written examination and four curriculum topics the old section never mentioned, the last of them live firearms training.
Under the amended MGL c. 140, § 131P(a), any person applying for a license or card under sections 129B, 131, or 131F must submit a basic firearms safety certificate to the licensing authority, and no FID or LTC application may be accepted or processed without the certificate attached to it. MGL c. 140, §§ 129B(b) and 131(b) repeat the bar from the other direction.
These people are outside the requirement, per § 131P(a):
Each of those three carries a condition: the person must be authorized by a competent authority to carry or possess the firearm and be acting within the scope of their duties. The pre-amendment paragraph letting a current member of the United States military or the Massachusetts National Guard skip the certificate on submitting a copy of their most current military identification form is gone from the amended text.
The non-resident LTC application published by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services still applies that waiver, so a § 131F applicant should read the form as well as the statute. Item 2 of its instructions says a safety course or certificate is not required if you held a Massachusetts non-resident LTC or Massachusetts resident LTC on or after June 1, 1998, or if you are a current member of the United States Military or the Massachusetts National Guard and submit a copy of your most current military identification. The same item treats a Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife hunter education course as a valid substitute for the safety certificate.
Two grandfather clauses sit in the same subsection. Persons lawfully possessing an FID or LTC on August 1, 2024 are exempt from § 131P upon expiration of that card or license and when applying for renewal. Persons possessing an FID or LTC prior to the implementation of live firearms trainings are also exempt from that requirement. EOPSS states the August 1, 2024 exemption differently than the statute does. Its SECTION 152 report says a person issued an FID or LTC on or before August 1, 2024 will not be required to complete the live fire component, including when seeking to renew. The statute exempts the holder from § 131P itself, while the report speaks only to the live fire component, and the statute keys to lawful possession on August 1, 2024 while the report keys to issuance on or before that date.
EOPSS answered the case those two formulations leave in doubt. Guidance #4, its November 13, 2025 memorandum to licensing authorities, firearms instructors, and license holders, takes the question of a card or license issued after August 1, 2024 but before the law became effective on October 2, 2024. The answer is that you will have to take a new basic firearms safety course and complete the live fire requirement when you renew, "but only if you applied for the permit or license after August 1, 2024." For that window EOPSS keys the outcome to the application date.
SECTION 153 of the act protects the credential itself. A valid LTC under § 131 or § 131F, a valid FID under § 129B, or a valid license to sell under § 122 stays valid until it expires or is suspended or revoked, and entitles the holder to possess the firearms the license authorized when it was last issued or renewed. The new curriculum does not reach back into a license already in your pocket.
One substitution survives in narrower form. A certificate issued under MGL c. 131, § 14 for completing a hunter education course still substitutes for the safety certificate, but the amended text limits that to issuance of an FID under § 129B, where the pre-amendment text carried no such limit. The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife administers those courses.
Under MGL c. 140, § 131P(b)(ii), the Colonel of the State Police may certify as a firearms safety instructor a person operating a course whose curriculum provides all of the following:
Items (E) through (H) are the additions. Under § 131P(g), the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, with the Department of Public Health, develops harm reduction materials the instructor discusses and distributes to every participant. They cover the prevalence of suicide by firearm against other forms of firearms violence, the risks of household firearms, best practices for reducing that risk, where to find more resources, and any additional information the commissioner of public safety and security determines is relevant to the section. That last clause means the list can grow without a further statutory change.
There is also a statewide test. Under § 131P(b)(i), the Colonel, in consultation with the municipal police training committee, promulgates rules on the issuance and form of certificates, including minimum curriculum requirements and examination content, and creates the written examination and its minimum passing requirements for use in all firearm safety courses mandated under the section. Under § 131P(f), the Colonel also produces and distributes public service announcements on safe storage and transportation of firearms under §§ 131C and 131L and on the importance of firearms safety education and training, including where a person can go to get it.
Two dates circulate for the amended § 131P. The date licensing authorities are working to is April 2, 2026.
That cross-reference in the annotation is worth following, because it is what put § 131P on the 18-month clock at all. SECTION 159 of Chapter 135 as enacted reads "Sections 38 and 75 shall take effect 18 months after the effective date of this act." Section 75 is the rewrite of MGL c. 140, § 131Q, not of § 131P. Chapter 206 of the Acts of 2024, the fiscal 2024 supplemental appropriations act approved September 16, 2024, struck that clause at its SECTION 51 and put in its place: "SECTION 159. Sections 38 and 74 shall take effect 18 months after the effective date of this act." Section 74 is the § 131P replacement. That one-digit change is what delays the new curriculum, live firearms training included, instead of leaving it in force already.
The Massachusetts State Police approved course list is keyed to the same changeover. It carries one table of LTC basic firearms safety courses valid April 1, 2026 and a second table valid until April 2, 2026, both "[i]n Accordance with Massachusetts General Law Chapter 140, § 131P and 515 CMR 3.00."
For a certificate already in hand, Guidance #4 covers the near term: a licensing authority may accept a certificate meeting the requirements of the current law and may keep doing so until section 74 takes effect on April 2, 2026. Two carry-forward rules run alongside it. Under 515 CMR 3.05(1)(c), a person licensed after June 1, 1998 who completed a course for an initial FID card or LTC does not have to complete another one or submit another certificate at renewal, and amended § 131P(a) exempts persons who held an FID or LTC before live firearms training is implemented from that training requirement. The narrower question Guidance #4 does not take up is a certificate presented after April 2, 2026 from a course that has come off the approved list. EOPSS records that commenters asked whether people who had already taken a course with live fire would be grandfathered in, and its report gives no answer, so confirm that case with the licensing authority before you apply. For an instructor, a course number can change even when the class does not, so check the current certification number before printing certificates.
The substance of the live fire component was still being built when EOPSS reported. New live fire certification requirements were not finalized and updated courses not yet approved by MSP, which bears primary responsibility for certifying the updated curriculum. Developing minimum standards, such as any standard for caliber or rounds of ammunition, is the report's first recommendation. Commenters at the two required public hearings asked what the minimum acceptable standard is, whether it covers handguns only, and what the passing requirement will be, if any. Treat any specific round count, distance, or scoring standard as unsettled until the Colonel's rules say otherwise.
One caution before the details. 515 CMR 3.00 has not been rewritten for Chapter 135. Its regulatory authority is MGL c. 140, §§ 131O and 131P, but the text still keys its exemptions to June 1, 1998 rather than August 1, 2024, still routes course completions to the State Police in Framingham rather than to DCJIS, still names courses that have come off the current approved list, and says nothing about the written examination or live firearms training the amended statute now requires. Read the rules below as the regulation's rules, and check each one against the amended § 131P.
515 CMR 3.05(2)(a) divides courses by what you are applying for. An FID prerequisite course must use rifles or shotguns as the primary subject matter unless it is an approved LTC course, and an LTC prerequisite course must use pistols or revolvers. The State Police course list says the same: LTC courses on it are approved for issuing FID certificates too.
Under 515 CMR 3.05(2)(b), a curriculum with no firearms law component can still qualify by using guest speakers familiar with firearms laws or by distributing pamphlets, books, or videos prepared by someone who is. Courses not listed in the regulation are approved case by case under 515 CMR 3.05(5) and (6). Note that 515 CMR 3.05(1) still keys its own exemptions to persons licensed on June 1, 1998, while the amended statute uses August 1, 2024. That same subsection carries the renewal rule. Under 515 CMR 3.05(1)(c), a person licensed after June 1, 1998 who completed a basic firearms safety course for an initial FID card or LTC is not required to complete another course or submit another certificate for FID card or LTC renewals, and a certificate issued between June 1, 1998 and October 21, 1998 counts where that course was later certified as an approved course. The regulation also runs the exemption across credentials. Under 515 CMR 3.05(1)(a), a person lawfully licensed with an FID card on June 1, 1998 needs no course or certificate for subsequent FID renewals or for subsequent LTC licensure and renewals, and under 3.05(1)(b) a person lawfully licensed with an LTC on that date needs none for subsequent LTC renewals or for subsequent FID licensure and renewals. These sit alongside the two statutory grandfather clauses in § 131P(a) described above.
515 CMR 3.05(3) and (4) name specific approved courses, and those lists no longer match the roster. The SIG Arms Academy Handgun Orientation Course and the Smith and Wesson Academy Massachusetts Carry Permit Course are still named in the regulation but sit only on the table valid until April 2, 2026, not on the April 1, 2026 table. The roster is the list the State Police currently publish, and it describes itself as issued in accordance with § 131P and 515 CMR 3.00. Before you pay for a course you found in the regulation, check whether it is on the current roster.
Under 515 CMR 3.04(1), you must be properly licensed with an FID card or LTC, you may only instruct on those firearms for which you are licensed, and you must document status as one of the following:
The mechanics:
Section 131P(b)(ii) also requires the Colonel to annually update and post a list of approved instructors on the State Police website. That listing, the instructor application, the approved course list, and 515 CMR 3.00 sit together on the State Police Firearms Safety Instructors Certification Program page. Under 515 CMR 3.02, the regulation does not apply to OLE firearms safety courses exempted under § 131P.
A certified instructor may issue a certificate to a person who successfully completes an approved course, but § 131P(c)(i) bars issuing one to anyone who fails to meet the minimum requirements of the prescribed course of study, including demonstrated competency in the use of firearms through class participation, satisfactory completion of the written examination prescribed by the Colonel, and live firearms training.
Under § 131P(c)(ii), instructors forward copies of the certificates they issue to the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services, certifying each person's satisfactory completion and competency in the ownership and use of firearms, and DCJIS forwards a copy to the applicant. Under § 131P(c)(iii), licensing authorities require a copy concurrently with the application and may query DCJIS to confirm issuance. 515 CMR 3.04(4) still directs instructors to send completion information to the State Police Licensing Unit in Framingham, and that is the regulation running behind the statute. EOPSS gave instructors the operational answer in Guidance #4 on November 13, 2025. Course instructors will be required to upload copies of completed certificates to the MIRCS Portal created by DCJIS, and people who completed the course will get to the certificate through that portal. EOPSS said specific information was forthcoming and that these requirements would not take effect until early 2026.
515 CMR 3.05(7) sets what goes on the certificate: the course title and the fact of approval under 515 CMR 3.05; the purpose, "Valid for FID Card" or "Valid for LTC"; the student's name and date of birth; the completion date; and the instructor's typed or printed name, signature, and certification number.
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