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Storing firearms in a locked room
- Thread starter bigblue
- Start date
I'm saying that both are legal. Many years ago I discussed both with Glidden and he agreed. No requirement for a "strong door" (whatever that is) but there is a requirement on a door (caselaw) having a "real" lock and not a bathroom door lock (case that lost).
namedpipes
NES Member
Thanks
I went the secure room route at my house but I still keep trigger locks on the rifles and the handguns in a locked container within the secure room (to appease Mass regs). Ammo is in bulk and on heavy wire shelves.
3/4" plywood walls, covered by 1/2" drywall and entry by steel solid core exterior grade door with locking handle and 3" reinforced dead bolt.
When they come for them they'll eventually get in but they won't have much fun.....
3/4" plywood walls, covered by 1/2" drywall and entry by steel solid core exterior grade door with locking handle and 3" reinforced dead bolt.
When they come for them they'll eventually get in but they won't have much fun.....
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In Mass. when courts talk about locked containers for firearms, is it still true that a cloth duffle bag with a padlock on the zipper is a good enough locked container. But a locked small room or a locked closet is not good enough as a locked container?
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What you claim is only speculation.
The basis for the speculation is the MA courts established that a bedroom with the privacy lock designed only to protect the occupants from kids walking in while the parents are going at it or someone is dressed in a Little Bo Peep costume is not a "locked container".
namedpipes
NES Member
Ok.
Once and for all, in the spirit of malicious compliance:
Dig a basement for a new house. Pour a vault room while they're doing the foundation walls. 18" reinforced concrete walls, floor and ceiling.
Before the ceiling is poured, site build a container occupying 100% of the volume of the vault using steel beams and steel plate walls. A steel box inside a concrete box. Have the blueprints clearly depict that the steel box "could" be lifted out and flown away, if you had a star ship and a tractor beam. It's definitely a container. Now secure the box within the vault using interlocking pins, super adhesives, whatever you can think of to make the box a permanent part of that vault. Pour the ceiling. Build the rest of the house, steel and concrete, above.
Install a bank vault door, time lock, multi part biometric locks, the whole deal, like on those spy movies. Obviously, will need hvac inside along with lighting, etc.
Now, inside, rack up all pistols and rifles. Put a trigger or cable lock each, so you're compliant with MA law.
Center of the room, setup a pedestal, with a clear acrylic box over it, ring the pedestal with a matrix of lasers and LED lighting, maybe even an info plaque and a security system warning sticker and inside that case put some crappy old, half rusted H&R six shooter.
I mean, you're going to jail anyway, so you might as well have fun.
/satire
Yes, I know. Humor in a law thread, but the OP question is long since answered to the extent that it can be.
Whatever happened to that guy in Lowell who had a vault darned near as secure as this one I described, some guys broke in and spent a day drilling into it and made off with some guns?
Once and for all, in the spirit of malicious compliance:
Dig a basement for a new house. Pour a vault room while they're doing the foundation walls. 18" reinforced concrete walls, floor and ceiling.
Before the ceiling is poured, site build a container occupying 100% of the volume of the vault using steel beams and steel plate walls. A steel box inside a concrete box. Have the blueprints clearly depict that the steel box "could" be lifted out and flown away, if you had a star ship and a tractor beam. It's definitely a container. Now secure the box within the vault using interlocking pins, super adhesives, whatever you can think of to make the box a permanent part of that vault. Pour the ceiling. Build the rest of the house, steel and concrete, above.
Install a bank vault door, time lock, multi part biometric locks, the whole deal, like on those spy movies. Obviously, will need hvac inside along with lighting, etc.
Now, inside, rack up all pistols and rifles. Put a trigger or cable lock each, so you're compliant with MA law.
Center of the room, setup a pedestal, with a clear acrylic box over it, ring the pedestal with a matrix of lasers and LED lighting, maybe even an info plaque and a security system warning sticker and inside that case put some crappy old, half rusted H&R six shooter.
I mean, you're going to jail anyway, so you might as well have fun.
/satire
Yes, I know. Humor in a law thread, but the OP question is long since answered to the extent that it can be.
Whatever happened to that guy in Lowell who had a vault darned near as secure as this one I described, some guys broke in and spent a day drilling into it and made off with some guns?
EJFudd
NES Member
Baloney they won't. One time our local fire department decided that a smell of smoke might have been coming from my daughter's locked apartment which, because of it's location, had a full-blown UL-rated commercial steel fire door in a steel frame plus the best deadbolt lock that money could buy. Took them less than 8 seconds to get inside.
No fire inside, but that door that was never the same afterwards.
Ben Cartwright SASS
NES Member
Then do what I do, I have a Schlage entry door lock, i.e. it has a 10 number keypad on it and a 4 number combination, you don't worry about keys, you enter the combination and then turn the handle. No keys
Ben Cartwright SASS
NES Member
In Massachusettstan never assume
one-eyed Jack
Manufacturer
My wife would "store" one of her snubbies in the drawer of the nite stand in the bedroom and the other in a kitchen drawer. No problem. Jack.
Never ceases to amaze me how screwy gun laws are.
As far as my simple brain reads the laws
I can put a trigger lock on a rifle stand it in the corner of my room and its all good , even if i leave all my doors and windows open. I can put a $2 mini pad lock on the zipper pull and that little hang tag on my soft case.....locked case.
which leads me to my at home storage , pad locked door only entrance in the basement, firearms have trigger locks locked in cases or safes or other secure container keys are locked away or on me or next to me while sleeping.
Just be thankful for everyday that passes that LEO is not in your home as they will find anything amd everything they can muster to write you up on.
Clean it up , lock it up , keep it out of sight.
It sucks that a simple lock on a door is not enough , locks in the most simple form are a sign that if you do not have the key/combo you dont belong there or what is in there does not belong to you.
Eventually some day someone will get screwed over because tresspassers broke into your cheap gun safe.
As far as my simple brain reads the laws
I can put a trigger lock on a rifle stand it in the corner of my room and its all good , even if i leave all my doors and windows open. I can put a $2 mini pad lock on the zipper pull and that little hang tag on my soft case.....locked case.
which leads me to my at home storage , pad locked door only entrance in the basement, firearms have trigger locks locked in cases or safes or other secure container keys are locked away or on me or next to me while sleeping.
Just be thankful for everyday that passes that LEO is not in your home as they will find anything amd everything they can muster to write you up on.
Clean it up , lock it up , keep it out of sight.
It sucks that a simple lock on a door is not enough , locks in the most simple form are a sign that if you do not have the key/combo you dont belong there or what is in there does not belong to you.
Eventually some day someone will get screwed over because tresspassers broke into your cheap gun safe.
amm5061
NES Member
As long as it's not one of those flimsy locks!
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Under MA law a rifle or shotgun is not a firearm; only a handgun is.
A Firearms Identification Card only allows possession of some rifles and shotguns but not firearms in MA. It's like parking on a driveway and driving on a parkway.
amm5061
NES Member
No, it's a CMR, not MGL. In original containers in a: "locked cabinet, closet or box."
Ammunition Info | Massachusetts | GOAL - GOAL.ORG.
Ben Cartwright SASS
NES Member
Which technically rules out reloading ammo
527 CMR 1.0
TZCHRIS
NES Member
When I lived in MA I had a "room" in basement. I drilled holes in door and locked it with that crazy lock you get when you buy a gun. All set, locked up! Now I live elsewhere and my guns are not locked because they are always "in use"
AHM
NES Member
I bet it varies widely.
One of the most interesting little passages in a Dragnet episode
was Friday and Gannon exiting the station,
opening a pair of individuals teentsy lockers,
and withdrawing their service revolvers.
Because no gunz allowed inside.
(Corrections Officers don't pack heat while they're mingling with inmates, either).
Also, fewer desk pops when you can't carry inside.
Except for the passages not covered by that studip definition.
Folks would be better served to read the actual laws than depend on that generality.
In other words, "a law".
'course, if you're (re)loading ammo, whatever you put it in IS the original container.
Thought experiment:
- You buy new brass
- You buy new powder
- You buy new primers
- You buy new projectiles
When you put them together,you're creating a new thing, that has never been in a container. Therefore, anything you put the newly created ammo in can only be the original container.
But let's pretend you use range brass. It's still newly (re)manufactured, so the above still holds.
If that isn't true, then all remanufactured ammo cannot be stored in its original container, even if you buy it from a store.
AHM
NES Member
I actually stopped doing that as I think it doesn’t comply with the transportation laws. I don’t have the time right now to find the law, but I can in a bit. I was under the impression that a trigger lock is NOT satisfactory for transporting guns. Instead you HAVE to put them in a locked case or trunk (assuming we’re not talking about pistols that are under your control).
If somebody proves me wrong on this before I have a chance to search for the law and post it, I’ll edit this post so as not to give out bad information in perpetuity.
amm5061
NES Member
You are correct; trigger locks are not sufficient for transportation. High-capacity firearms must be in a locked container, but you can toss your trap shotgun in the trunk and it's theoretically legal.
VetteGirlMA
NES Member
One thing I have seen since being a gun owner is that if Maura and her goon squad want to make a case out of it, they will. You could put ammo in a lock box, put the lock box in a safe and then put the entire safe in another safe and if the inner safe isn't locked, the goon squad will determine that to be a 'storage violation'. So just live your life the way you want to and leave it at that.
