When did registration become a requirement?

[Ultimate]

When did FA-10 and registration begin for firearm purchases and transfers? Was anything legally owned by a licensed individual prior to said date excluded from the requirement of registration?

 

[jdubois]

The original 'blue card' registration stuff was the 60's, I believe? (Len? you're probably more up on that than I am) The modern FA-10 form was 1998. Since registration in MA is more about transfers than ownership, there was never any need to register guns transferred before the registration requirements. There are almost no records left of any registrations prior to 1998.

 

[Len-2A Training]

The original 'blue card' registration stuff was the 60's, I believe? (Len? you're probably more up on that than I am) The modern FA-10 form was 1998. Since registration in MA is more about transfers than ownership, there was never any need to register guns transferred before the registration requirements. There are almost no records left of any registrations prior to 1998.

I got in this game in the mid-1970s. Although a quick Google and Wikipedia searches turned up nothing wrt history pre-1998. IIRC, I think that gun registration probably started in the mid-late 1960s.

You have bad info on current MA database status:

- BATFE computerized all the dealer FA-10s going back to 1986 for CHSB.

- For health reasons, all the blue cards pre-10/21/1998 (when MA changed to the current forms) were trashed. Thus NO private registrations/transactions pre-10/21/1998 are in the database.

- Everything since 10/21/1998 are scanned into the database.

 

[jdubois]

Thanks, Len.

 

[namedpipes]

I was but a child in the 70's but I swear I remember something about gun owners being required to register their guns. Perhaps it was a toothless threat and not actual law, but I remember my uncle being quite ticked off about it. (eta: wrt having to register the guns he already had)

Maybe I'm misremembering, but even if I'm somehow mashing the GCA of '68 I would never have noticed the issue. I was still into lincoln logs and Cowboys & Indians. Sorry, Cowboys & Native Americans.

 

[vellnueve]

I think you are mashing something together because even today "registration" is only for transfers, acquisitions, and dispositions.

 

[jdubois]

"registration" is only for transfers, acquisitions, and dispositions.

And importation... sometimes

 

[oldguy]

I remember my dad bringing a 22 he had owned for years down to the police station in the early 70s to be registered.
He walked in there with the gun in hand

 

[one-eyed Jack]

I remember my dad bringing a 22 he had owned for years down to the police station in the early 70s to be registered.
He walked in there with the gun in hand

How can a PD "register" a firearm? Jack.

 

[jdubois]

How can a PD "register" a firearm? Jack.

I've heard recent stories of PDs that try...

 

[Len-2A Training]

How can a PD "register" a firearm? Jack.

I've heard recent stories of PDs that try...

Easy, they put it in the PD "database".

Has nothing to do with MA gun laws, CHSB or any need to "register" any guns you acquire.

A goodly percentage of my guns are NOT registered! That's because the state didn't create a database until 1998, threw away all "blue cards" (pre-1998 "registrations" of private acquisitions) and dealer FA-10s pre 1986. [NOTE: Every gun I possess was done on a blue card or FA-10 and duly reported when it was acquired.]

I'm willing to bet that if you ask random LEOs about the "legality of having an unregistered gun" that 25-50% of them will tell you that it is "illegal"!

I know of LEOs that will tell people to "register" all their guns with the PD and/or with FA-10s (even those possessed before the database was created)!

 

[hiker45acp]

After reading this, I am curious, if I purchased any firearms on "blue cards" back in the late 70's and they trashed all those cards (for what reason) how would they know if that firearm I own (pre-98 handgun) is actually legal for me to own in MA (MA compliant purchase) without that proof? Unless I made a copy of the blue card before I mailed it? Any thoughts on this to clarify it? Thanks,
Wayne

I got in this game in the mid-1970s. Although a quick Google and Wikipedia searches turned up nothing wrt history pre-1998. IIRC, I think that gun registration probably started in the mid-late 1960s.

You have bad info on current MA database status:

- BATFE computerized all the dealer FA-10s going back to 1986 for CHSB.

- For health reasons, all the blue cards pre-10/21/1998 (when MA changed to the current forms) were trashed. Thus NO private registrations/transactions pre-10/21/1998 are in the database.

- Everything since 10/21/1998 are scanned into the database.

 

[theGringo]

I remember filling out Blue Cards pre-98. Worcester also had a White Card which read "Voluntary Registration". It was optional. Don't know if it was just a Worcester thing, but it was identical to the Blue card, only it was white.

 

[Len-2A Training]

After reading this, I am curious, if I purchased any firearms on "blue cards" back in the late 70's and they trashed all those cards (for what reason) how would they know if that firearm I own (pre-98 handgun) is actually legal for me to own in MA (MA compliant purchase) without that proof? Unless I made a copy of the blue card before I mailed it? Any thoughts on this to clarify it? Thanks,
Wayne

No pre-9/13/1994 handguns are "illegal" for a MA resident to own, period!

Only so-called semi-auto "assault weapons" (handguns, like the AR15 pistol) made after that date are illegal for a MA Resident to possess in MA.

Restrictions on sale/transfer of handguns is strictly a restriction on what MA Dealers can sell to a MA Resident. They have NO effect on private possession or sale/transfer in a FTF with another MA Resident.

Proving that you possessed the handgun pre-10/21/1998 so that a MA DEALER can sell it to a MA Resident is the only issue. A bill of sale, copy of the blue card "MAY" be sufficient . . . it's totally up to the MA Dealer as to what he/she is comfortable with for "evidence".

 

[hiker45acp]

Thanks, that seems to clear up some questions I had.