LTC-A (Target and Hunting) - Transporting on MBTA

[MisterHappy]

It's not unlawful (assuming the long gun is not large capacity), just weird in the PRM, like open carry.

It's the "Concealed means concealed" theory.

Just like we teach in the Hunter Ed course - if you take a deer, until it's been checked in, when you transport it, it needs to be "visible." The current best practice is to cover it, completely, except for maybe a hoof or so, sticking out, so it's "visible" per the law. And, it's covered up so all the kids that think Bambi was a documentary will not freak out.

If an umbrella can cause a Mall Freak-out, imagine what an 870 or Garand in the window of a truck would do.

 

[AHM]

I was just approved for my LTC-A from Boston, restricted to Target and Hunting. ... if I carry my firearm unloaded, inside of a locked container, which would be inside of a backpack, it is okay to transport it on the MBTA ... to and from the range?

It seems to me that the bolded part of your cunning plan is not Massprudent.

If the locked container was (or was inside of) a neat leather briefcase,
you'll pass all day long. You will only garner attention
if you are detained by police for some suspected crime.

On the other hand, if you prance around the T wearing a backpack,
one of these days you may encounter a Police Control Action.

Probably during the run-up to a holiday or sporting event,
or just after a terror attack. (Months after 9/11, parking in the Prudential garage
was like getting into the Baghdad green zone - security searched our car for bombs:
before we could even drive off of the street, we had to let them look through our trunk,
and they checked the undercarriage with hand mirrors).

And given a choice, it is more likely that cops will demand to paw through your backpack
even while they're telling smartly-dressed people holding an executive-looking
briefcase to move along - there's nothing to see here.

Obviously you increase your chances of a search at a checkpoint if you're wearing range gear.

ETA: I'm not trying to talk you out of using a locked container.
In your shoes I might have even considered stripping the slide off of the frame.
I'm just saying that backpacks can get inordinate attention.