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Can confirm that this works with a real firearm. You need to put non-TSA locks on the case, and it's kept in custody of the airline at baggage claim (does not go on the carousel). You must provide ID to retrieve the case.

I use a cheap 1911 frame. This is a 48.5-state solution; don't try it in Illinois or NYC.




The custody bit is inconsistent at best.


Do NOT fly into Massachusetts with a gun. To have a gun in MA you must have a MA gun license


A starter pistol with a non-bored barrel is purported to be legal in Massachusetts, so that's an option too. Just don't bring ammunition, that's a problem if it is a type usable in a regular firearm.


Mass non-residents don't need the license as long as it's unloaded and in a case.

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/gun-ownership-in-massachus...


>Non-residents with a valid Massachusetts non-resident hunting license do not need a firearm license to possess or carry rifles and shotguns and ammunition during the hunting season.

>Non-residents do not need a firearms license to transport their firearms in or through the Commonwealth, provided the firearms are unloaded and enclosed in a case while traveling.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

This seems to indicate that a MA firearms license is required if

a. You are staying in MA

b. You don’t have a MA hunting license and/or it is not hunting season.


It's worth looking up the law in question, instead of their description.

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Cha...

Here the exemption is for:

> (h) Possession of rifles and shotguns and ammunition therefor by nonresidents traveling in or through the commonwealth, providing that any rifles or shotguns are unloaded and enclosed in a case;

I'd think that it would be hard to argue that "traveling in or through" doesn't include staying in some sort of accommodations during your trip.


> Possession of rifles and shotguns

This specifically does not mention handguns. Handguns have much narrower exemptions: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Cha...

IANAL but a starter pistol with no ammo is probably ok, but hey, it is only 2 1/2 years in jail if you are convicted.

(edit - fixed typo)


Ah, you’re absolutely right.

Interesting, though, that their FAQ page says “firearms” are allowed while the code only provides an exception for rifles and shotguns (excluding handguns). Seems dangerously misleading considering the penalties for violations


Yes... I might switch to using a Remington 870 action with barrel and magazine removed. Still reasonably compact!


Yes, there is a federal preemption law (FOPA) that permits travel through a restrictive/prohibitive state if the origin and destination permit the carrier to lawfully posses the firearm. However, meeting the FOPA criteria may be treated as an affirmative defense in some states. IANAL so YMMV.


IANAL but you should read the actual law, not a summary even when it is from the state:

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Cha...

I am a Mass resident and know not to mess with Mass gun laws - they carry a minimum of 2 1/2 years in jail.

Total coincidence - MA has the lowest gun death rate at <1/3 the national average and <1/6 some of the most dangerous states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_death_rates_in_the_Uni...


Yours is the wrong citation. See my other post for the correct exemption.

Boston is your big city, right? It had 56 people murdered in 2018. Here are their pictures. https://www.universalhub.com/2018/boston-murders-2018

As near as I can tell from the available pictures, the victims are largely or entirely black. They make up 23% of the city, according to wikipedia, or 159,754 people. So that is about 35 black victims per 100,000 black residents.

In 2018, Chicago is about 40 black victims per 100,000 black residents.

This is comparable to black victim rates elsewhere. I don't think that your gun rates are helping so much as the fact that you are a mostly white state without many urban centers.


Thank you for sharing this.

Seeing the faces of the victims really hammers home the reality of murder in the United States: something that's much worse for black men (and the black community) than it is for everyone else.


[flagged]


I'm afraid that I unaware of evidence that mass murders are a Christian problem whatsoever. Nor does it seem to be a political "radicalization" issue, as would be similar to what the UK saw during the Irish troubles, to take one of several possible examples. But I think that people might better describe it as serious mental health epidemic of as yet poorly understood origin. (Pick your poison: drugs, social media, social climate, etc.)

Some people have put forward decent ideas on how we could restrict firearms from such individuals. (I personally think that everyone purchasing a firearm should have to find a longtime acquaintance to swear under penalty of perjury that this person is fit to own a firearm. Maybe others have better ideas.) Regardless, I hope that that situation can be improved somehow.


Your idea is similar to MA gun license requirements - you need two non-relatives to sign your application before you submit it to your local police to decide if you meet the requirements to hold a gun license


> I am not sure what the race of murder victims has to do with gun death rates, the race of the gun using murderer is more important...

The race of a murderer is strongly correlated with the race of the victim. "As with homicide in general, most victims are the same race as the offender(s)....More than 80 percent of all crime involves victims and perpetrators of the same race. Whites and African Americans of course can and do attack each other, but they are the exception, not the rule. "

> young white Christian men have a mass murder problem, somehow they are being radicalized.

There is definitely a mass murder problem, but it isn't particularly biased toward young (mean age 31) or white (54% of shooters out of 60+% population share). It is overwhelmingly male (especially for perpetrators - 98% of mass murder perpetrators, but also for victims - 75% of murder victims).

Not sure where you're getting the idea that Christians in particular are committing the shootings - there doesn't seem to be a lot of data or discussion of the religion of the perpetrators.

"Despite the widespread perception that mass shooters are overwhelmingly white males, researchers have found that white men are not overrepresented among mass shooters. In other words, white men are no more likely than other male demographic to engage in a mass shooting. Daniel Engber, writing for Slate, noted that mass shooters are not disproportionately white male. He writes that “the notion that white men of privilege are disproportionately represented among mass shooters—indeed, that they make up ‘nearly all’ of them—is a myth.” A widely referenced analysis by Mother Jones (mentioned earlier) found that “white people weren’t overrepresented among mass shooters. "

Statistics change if you include other types of mass shootings (family more white, felony more black) which are much more common than the "public mass shootings".

https://centerforinquiry.org/blog/who-are-mass-shooters-mass...


The article you cite references a study that looked at mass shootings from 2006-2016, I am sure Las Vegas shootings and other more recent ones would changes the statistis. It also breaks down shootings into a category called "public" - which is the one most people are interested in. Non-black perpetrators committed 70% of these public shootings


Which lends support to the claim that the shooters are not disproportionately white. Searching for a variety of sources on percentage of population that is white in America out the figure at 74-76%.


I described the variance between public and other mass shootings above: "Statistics change if you include other types of mass shootings (family more white, felony more black) which are much more common than the "public mass shootings"."

> Non-black perpetrators committed 70% of these public shootings

So you're bolstering your argument that public mass shootings are primarily white by claiming that blacks (14% of the population) commit 30% of the public mass shootings?

Statistics and context matter.


For one example, the recent mass shooter of Philadelphia police was an African-American Muslim.


> Total coincidence - MA has the lowest gun death rate at <1/3 the national average and <1/6 some of the most dangerous states: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_death_rates_in_the_Uni...

And yet Massachusetts' murder rate of 3.2/100k/yr is right about the median for the US. Who ever would have thought? (Granted, the suicide rate of 8.8/100k/yr is pretty impressive, and some of that might be assignable to their gun control efforts)


Lower availability of guns does not influence murder rates (much?).

Murder is when one human wants to kill another and that's not hard, humans are as dedicated as they are fragile.

What availability of guns influences most are homicides. Where you don't necessarily want to kill another human but you want their stuff or you want to teach them a lesson, also accidental deaths and I think suicides (probably quickness and decisiveness draws people).


The point was that (virtually) no one ever campaigns for gun control on the basis of reducing suicide - only murder, and often only mass shootings.


But Massachusetts is middling (20/50) on the gun murder rate ('''includes murders and willful manslaughters, but excludes "deaths caused by negligence, suicide, or accident" and justifiable homicides.'''). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_death_rates_in_the_Uni...


Yes, the only thing the Mass laws do is stop gun deaths "caused by negligence, suicide, or accident" and justifiable homicides - self defense or police shootings


If the primary source of gun deaths is suicide/accident, does it make sense to put limits on "assault rifles"?

Do background checks help prevent suicides or accidents?

On the other hand, waiting periods, permit to purchase, etc., may be more helpful in preventing suicides (or minimizing fatal suicide attempts).

What were the statistics and trends in Massachusetts before the laws were in force?

It's important to look at the intent and effect of proposed (and on-the-books) legislation, and at the context of statistics.


We would also need data on suicide by other means in order to make any sort of statements regarding the effect gun availability on total suicides.


I looked for it, but there are lots of confounding factors, particularly that statistics don't really distinguish between accidental poisoning/overdose and attempted suicide by poisoning/overdose.

There is a good discussion of various factors (duration of suicide crises, availability of means, opportunity to abort the attempt or be rescued, and the lethality of the mechanism).

"Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date."

"A number of studies have indicated that when lethal means are made less available or less deadly, suicide rates by that method decline, and frequently suicide rates overall decline. This has been demonstrated in a number of areas: bridge barriers, detoxification of domestic gas, pesticides, medication packaging, and others."

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/saves...


Does that include a flare gun?




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