Under ones direct control

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Is there anything written in the MGLs explaing this catch phrase? Is it an interpretation of the current laws by LE or the courts? Is it on your person? Within arms reach? What about in your home? It seems to me that it is a pit fall to be used against you if all else fails.
 
I know this may sound crazy to some people on here but if it’s not holstered on my waist it’s locked up. Follow that and u should be good. And I keep my ammunition separate from firearms. I also have one of those handy under the car seat lockboxes in case I have to put my carry in there.

I believe there is case law about someone locking it in their glove box and he was found guilty.
 
As far as your home, When the police show up and see the guy dressed in all black with a ski mask on and your blood all over his knife laying on the floor dead, the first thing they’re going to say to you while you are bleeding out is “where did you get the gun? was it locked up? and are you licensed?”

So locked up at home too. Plenty of handy bedside safes for quick access out there.
 
As far as your home, When the police show up and see the guy dressed in all black with a ski mask on and your blood all over his knife laying on the floor dead, the first thing they’re going to say to you while you are bleeding out is “where did you get the gun? was it locked up? and are you licensed?”

So locked up at home too. Plenty of handy bedside safes for quick access out there.
Didn't they get a guy for storage after a home defense incident because he left the gun on the counter after?
 
The best worded post I can recall was from Lens.

I don't believe that direct control is defined in CMR /MGL. I also don't believe it has ever been directly addressed explicitly in court. All the cases you guys mention we're addressed by courts under storage or transportation laws, thus would not fall under the direct control exclusion clause and thus it's still up to the courts to decide.

(Or the responding officer to begin to interpret or the DA to decide to get out the gallows for, etc.)

Of all the insurance and outs of firearms law in MA, direct control definition is probably the one I'd be least concerned with.

Women have potentially more of an issue with this due to purse carry.
 
Women have potentially more of an issue with this due to purse carry

Which reminds me. The best vector we are going to have to get our gun rights back and protected for the nonce is to figure out a way to make it a gender identity issue and USE the beast that is making bathrooms unisex.
 
Didn't they get a guy for storage after a home defense incident because he left the gun on the counter after?

The state went after a guy that had a heart attack while cleaning his guns for leaving them on the table as EMS took him to the hospital.

The state also went after a widow for a storage violation when she came home to find her husband, whom had been lawfully carrying, dead on the floor. PD gleefully seized the gun and prosecutor filed charges. Widow in that case was licensed, called a competent attorney, and the travesty blew up in the PD & prosecutor's faces.

Never mind that SCotUS already has ruled in the D.C. carry cases that safe storage similar to MA's law isn't constitutional.
 
Is there anything written in the MGLs explaing this catch phrase? Is it an interpretation of the current laws by LE or the courts? Is it on your person? Within arms reach? What about in your home? It seems to me that it is a pit fall to be used against you if all else fails.

Yes.
 
Never mind that SCotUS already has ruled in the D.C. carry cases that safe storage similar to MA's law isn't constitutional.

If I remember correctly, that’s not really a fair comparison. I though the DC law required that guns be unloaded, disassembled, and locked up, making them literally useless for defense. Mass. law only requires they be locked up, so a loaded gun can be kept in a quick access bedside “safe”.
 
I know this may sound crazy to some people on here but if it’s not holstered on my waist it’s locked up. Follow that and u should be good. And I keep my ammunition separate from firearms.

Yes, sounds crazy to me. How can you clean you gun while it's holstered? What if the Po-Po shows up while your cleaning it? Do you make them wait while you throw the disassembled gun in the safe?
 
The state went after a guy that had a heart attack while cleaning his guns for leaving them on the table as EMS took him to the hospital.

The state also went after a widow for a storage violation when she came home to find her husband, whom had been lawfully carrying, dead on the floor. PD gleefully seized the gun and prosecutor filed charges. Widow in that case was licensed, called a competent attorney, and the travesty blew up in the PD & prosecutor's faces.

I hear about these all the time... are there cites I can use to read up on them?
 
Yes, sounds crazy to me. How can you clean you gun while it's holstered? What if the Po-Po shows up while your cleaning it? Do you make them wait while you throw the disassembled gun in the safe?
Haha!!! Great point. After I’m done cleaning it while it’s in my direct control I either holster it or put it into the safe.
 
On the one hand, there's my recently made point that
guns within scary lunging distance during a traffic stop
are probably under direct control.

But I recall that somewhere in here is an NESer's anecdote
that a cop told them they wouldn't hassle them over storage,
since the gun spotted sitting out
was on the same floor of their (kidless?) house.
They said if the gun was laying around on a different floor,
they'd consider it unsecured.
I suppose if the gun was concealed on the same floor,
that might also be "unsecured".

The implication would be something along the lines of,
if you were doing some gunsmithing or dry firing practice,
left the gun on the table to go to the bathroom,
and then the cop rang the doorbell,
they weren't going to hold it against you.

However in order to skate, you'd have to have that cop in your house
(or one of his colleagues, if it was a department policy),
and you'd have to not have done something to enrage them
and want to jack you up.

I just did a modest set of searches that should have uncovered the anecdote,
but couldn't find it. Maybe if you read some of the many, many existing
threads on this subject you'll find it.
 
In your hand is under your direct control. Anything else is up for debate
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Aren't you glad I didn't post this counterexample?
 
Here's what your Massachusetts judge will determine:

In a shoebox on the back seat of your car while you pump gas: under your direct control, improperly stored.
In a shoebox on your dining room table while you get a snack from the kitchen: out of your direct control, improperly stored.

Plan for a lose/lose and you will never be disappointed.
 
When you are caught with a gun in your car, the police will claim it was under your control, and charge you with possession without an LTC. When you show them your LTC, it will suddenly cease to be under your control, and you will be charged with improper storage.

ha ha , not every towns PD are bunch of anti gun ass hats like in boston and many others
 
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