Thank you for the information Lens. I tried getting a permit earlier this year and when I called my fire chief he had no idea about the law and it took him 2 weeks to get back to me just to say, well you are not going to store more than X amount of smokeless powder so I wouldn't worry. This did not sit well with me so I waited a few months and called back to try again, this time it seemed he got a bit more training as he was more knowledgeable on the subject. But he wanted to give me a call back because he wanted to review the 527 CMR as there were some changes that were going to implemented to it January 1st 2015. In that time between the call back I found the proposed changes on the mass.gov website and saw that our storage limits were still the same and nothing had changed there.
As for the inspection under 527 CMR 13.04 Section 3 sub section b number 5 (yea they don't make it easy) it states this. Any person who has applied for or has been issued such a permit or a renewal thereof by the marshal, under 527 CMR 13.04(3)(b), shall be deemed to have consented to periodic administrative inspections by the Marshall or his designees of any building, structure, magazine or facility used to store or manufacture such explosive materials and all records relating thereto.
My big question while reviewing the 527 CMR is what classification is our locker that we need to store our materials in. From looking at a few things in the document the first is that the ammo, smokeless powder, black powder, and primers is defined as Class 1 materials. And looking at section 13.05(1)(e) Type 5 magazines are for storage of Class 1 materials. So that makes you think that as long as you meet the locking requirements your all set. But as you look further down the document in section 13.05 there is a table with what type of magazine that should be used. And that is where it gets all confusing as it states that we need to use a Type 4 magazine as black powder is a Class 1.1D while smokeless powder is a Class 1.1C or Class 1.3C. So by looking at table I need to upgrade my storage unit from a type 5 magazine to a type 4.
So please tell me if I am wrong here with any of this and that before the fire marshal comes on out that I should make sure that my cabinets and storage all conform to a Type 4 magazine. I guess that it would not be a Mass law if it wasn't complicated and confusing.
Here is the link to the document
http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/dfs/osfm/cmr/cmr-secured/527013.pdf