AMMO on school grounds

[Ripach]

A situation arose recently and I erred on the side of caution, now I am curious after looking in a few places and not finding an answer, if my precautions were even necessary.

My son is in preschool in a MA public school, and needs to be picked up at lunch time. Last week I went for a ride in the A.M. to Northeast Trading and bought some ammo. Due to Murphy's Law I hit traffic on my way back and if I stopped to drop off the ammo at home I may have been late to pick up my boy. I chose to be extra cautious and stopped at home, barely making it in time to pick up my son. Now I find myself wondering if stressing over it was worth it.
Basically my questions are as follows:
Is it illegal to have the ammo on school grounds?
If it is, who if any would have taken the chance since it was only ammo and nobody was going to see it anyway?

Thanks in advance for your help and opinions.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

If you read the text of MGL 269 10j, you will see that it bans the possession of weapons on one's person and that other sections of 269 do not include the "on one's person" qualifier. Although one cannot expect the street copy to know this subtle distinction, the lawyers do - and there have been cases where charges could not be sustained because a gun was found in the car, not "on the person" of the arrestee. The presence of different qualifiers in different sections of the same law provides fodder for a powerful argument that the difference does indeed have meaning. All disclaimers regarding "suitable person" incorporated herein by reference as if fully enumerated.

So, even if ammo is a weapon, it would appear that it would have to be "on your person" for the provisions of MGL 269/10j to apply. Hopefully one of the attorneys on this forum can elaborate.

 

[Ripach]

Thanks for the quick reply Rob, I had an inkling that the answer would be similar to what you posted. The "suitable person" thing is one of the major reasons I detoured and dropped it off. I felt even if I was in the right, I may end up in deep anyway, Hazards of living behind the iron curtain I guess.