Do MA police need an LTC to purchase and own personal firearms?

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Hey all, figured this would be the best place to ask. I have a friend who recently moved back to MA and has been hired by a city’s PD. He is former military police and was stationed down south. Although he is familiar with firearms he has come to me with some questions regarding personal gun ownership in MA that I haven’t encountered before.

1. Does he need an LTC to purchase and posess personal firearms here in MA, or will his PD credentials suffice?

2. What firearms can he own that are restricted to civilian ownership? (Thinking newer glocks, rifles with “banned” features etc.) and what are the guidelines for purchase of these (does he need to show he is purchasing them for official police use?)

Many thanks in advance for the help here. As the go to guy when it comes to firearms and state regs in my circles I am at a loss with these questions and don’t want to give him bad info.
 
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the town I grew up in had several cops that were "carrying on the badge" because they were not able to get a LTC.

Granted this was before Lautenburg....

They had to leave their guns at the station when they were off duty, and did not own any firearms of their own

Most departments now make it a condition of employment that a sworn officer has to have a LTC, so when they do something stupid like get a DWI, or some side piece of tail pulls the 209 card out their hat, they are screwed.
 
Tomorrow, the MA senate will vote to make police obtain and maintain a license to work as LE. So yes, an LTC is needed just like everyone else.
 
2. What firearms can he own that are restricted to civilian ownership? (Thinking newer glocks, rifles with “banned” features etc.) and what are the guidelines for purchase of these (does he need to show he is purchasing them for official police use?)

Purchased was answered. Must have LTC.

Own. LEO is exempt from AWB and magazine capacity restriction.

Your question #2 is confused. You ask about glocks like they are in some way restricted or banned for ownership. They are not. Forget the EOPS list and the AG regs. They are not about ownership but about what a dealer can SELL. Not the same thing. If someone will sell it, you can buy it.
 
Yes yes, I know, poorly worded. I meant can he purchase one from an FFL who sells the newer ones to LEO.
That is a question for the FFL, not for the forum. If an FFL will sell it and he has an LTC, he can buy it (so can you).

There is no LEO exemption on dealers for selling handguns so it must still be on the list. Not all dealers care or know this.

AG regs, LEO are exempt. Some will require a letter from their chief. That is not in 940CMR16 but some people like belt and suspenders.

But ultimately that is a question for the FFL selling
 
Purchased was answered. Must have LTC.

Own. LEO is exempt from AWB and magazine capacity restriction.

Your question #2 is confused. You ask about glocks like they are in some way restricted or banned for ownership. They are not. Forget the EOPS list and the AG regs. They are not about ownership but about what a dealer can SELL. Not the same thing. If someone will sell it, you can buy it.
Yeah guess I asked the glock thing weird and also didn’t think that through. Ive seen some in shops listed as “LE Only” but I guess that is up to the FFL as you said. Good to know on the AWB and Mag capacity exemption. Does this mean an FFL could sell them “post ban” rifles and mags ir is that kind of up to the FFL to do it and assume risk due to the ambiguity as well?
 
Yeah guess I asked the glock thing weird and also didn’t think that through. Ive seen some in shops listed as “LE Only” but I guess that is up to the FFL as you said. Good to know on the AWB and Mag capacity exemption. Does this mean an FFL could sell them “post ban” rifles and mags ir is that kind of up to the FFL to do it and assume risk due to the ambiguity as well?
You will find FFLs that will sell any/all rifles to LEO and will sell normal capacity magazines. Ask the FFL.
 
Also, there are a handful of Glock authorized LE Dealers in the state where LEOs can purchase a new Glock for ~$400-500. Many MA dealers will tell LE customers that they will give them LE pricing and then charge $100 more than the legit LE price. Have him check prices on www.atlantictactical.com for legit LE pricing.

My comment isn't restricted to Glock either, same applies to Sig and other major mfrs. of handguns. Most LE purchases come with 3 large-capacity mags as well.
 
You mean "Animal Farm" is being dismantled?
 
that never happens.... and when they catch on you eat a bullet to avoid trial



September 14, 2016


BRAINTREE — An audit of the Braintree Police Department’s troubled evidence room revealed that thousands of pieces of drug evidence, dozens of firearms, and over $400,000 of seized money had vanished, town officials said Wednesday.
The audit, which examined evidence going back to 1999, found that heat-sealed drug bags were torn open or cut; bags of cash were sliced open at the bottom; and at least 60 guns, including semiautomatic rifles, had disappeared.
“I find the auditor’s report of unaccounted for items and poor record keeping practices by the Police Department to be deeply troubling and unacceptable,” Mayor Joseph Sullivan said at a news conference Wednesday night. The town, he said, has asked the attorney general’s office to help investigate.

Braintree Police Chief Russell W. Jenkins ordered the audit this spring, after he began to suspect a problem. The officer who ran the evidence room killed herself in May, a week after the auditor spoke with her for the first time.


At the press conference, Sullivan declined to comment on what might have motivated the removal of evidence, saying the investigation was sensitive and ongoing.


Much of the missing evidence was probably disposed of by the department in purges in 2009 and 2012, according to both Sullivan and the audit, conducted by former State Police major Bruce Gordon, who runs Narcotics Audit Solutions.

The evidence purged was not properly recorded, the audit states, and remained in the computers as active. Hundreds of pieces of evidence continued to vanish after 2012, however, when there were no purges being conducted.

The evidence room officer, Susan Zopatti, worked in Braintree for 20 years, and had run the evidence room since 2013.

Sullivan said that since the audit was completed, all but 12 of the firearms had been found. About $140,000 of the missing cash was found, as well, according to a written police response to the audit.


“There is still a lot more work to be done to determine a fully accurate account of these items, and the department is continuing their efforts in that regard,” Sullivan said.

The Police Department disputed some of the audit’s numbers, stating in the written response that the list of evidence auditors were given to search for was “substantially overinclusive.”

Braintree Mayor Joseph Sullivan. handout
The audit examined evidence dating to 1999. Norfolk County officials are now facing the prospect that an untold number of cases may need to be thrown out because evidence was tainted or lost. Sullivan declined to estimate how many cases may be affected. He also declined to specify what tipped off officials that an audit was needed.

“I truly appreciate your desire, the public’s right to know,” Sullivan said. “I want to emphasize that I find these findings troubling, and we are going to take steps to correct them.”

Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey said he was looking at having to dismiss 200 to 400 cases, noting that he had already dismissed a half dozen cases over the last three days.

Among them was a slate of drug charges dropped Wednesday against Stephen O’Brien, a Quincy man with 38 prior convictions.

“It is very disturbing that people are now going to be let go after some great work by the Police Department and the district attorney’s office,” Morrissey said. “It’s disheartening.””

The audit revealed that 4,709 pieces of narcotics evidence were missing, and 38 pieces compromised. Drug evidence was stored haphazardly, the audit found. Some samples were not logged in, and others were listed as destroyed”but were found during the audit.


About 2,500 pieces of property evidence were missing, the audit concluded. The property category included entries for cash, videos, sexual assault kits, counterfeit money, vehicles, and bicycles, but it was not clear from the audit what property was actually missing.

The audit found that sexual assault kits were being improperly stored in an outdoor trailer. There was no rhyme or reason to where anything was stored, the audit noted, and there were many property items that did not appear to have any evidentiary value at all.

The audit also discovered hundreds of documents improperly stored in the evidence locker instead of in individual case files.

Seized money was stored in a filing cabinet, but many seizures were logged without an amount. The audit found that $407,989 was missing.

Either 60 or 70 firearms were missing, according to the audit and the police department’s written response.

The audit laid out recommendations for how evidence should be handled in the future, and Sullivan said that new protocols and procedures have already been established.

“I, as well as Chief Jenkins, accept the independent auditor’s recommendations to better secure and preserve current and future evidence and will take the corrective steps necessary to ensure that these new procedures are implemented and adhered to,” Sullivan said.



XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

fast forward to 2018


November 17, 2018 at 12:00 a.m.
Mishandled evidence was such an open secret at the Braintree Police Department that the cop in charge of holding the guns, drugs and money was nicknamed “Annie Dookhan,” after the disgraced state chemist sent to prison for manipulating evidence, according to a new report.
The report released yesterday by the Town of Braintree detailed its outside investigation of how officer Susan Zopatti stole from and mishandled the police department’s evidence room that was missing 60 firearms, more than $400,000 and 4,709 pieces of narcotics evidence.
The stolen or misplaced evidence resulted in 185 criminal cases being dismissed, the report said.
Attorney General Maura Healey, who investigated the evidence room, released her office’s report yesterday that concluded Zopatti — who committed suicide in May 2016 as the scandal came to light — alone stole guns, drugs and cash, and no one else would be charged.

The town’s report detailed both Zopatti’s management of the evidence room and how top police brass failed to treat the discrepancies seriously, in what the town’s investigators called a “dereliction of basic investigatory procedures.”
On May 12, 2016, then-Chief Russell Jenkins contacted town officials to remove Zopatti from her post overseeing the evidence room after $1,848 was found missing from a drug case and rape kits were found piling up in the evidence room fridge. He was told it would be difficult given the police union contract.
Russell then told human resources chief Karen Shanley that people had started to call Zopatti “the Annie Dookhan of the Braintree Police Department,” according to the town report. After a final warning to keep the evidence room in order and the addition of a second lock on an evidence room filing cabinet, Zopatti was found dead May 19.
Officers cleaning out her desk found loose packages of cocaine and a “notepad designed to look the outline of a shooting victim with a red mark and a hole to store a pen in the chest area.” Her cellphone was destroyed and her computer was cleaned and reassigned to another officer. In the evidence room, ripped open bags were found in the cash drawer. Braintree police launched an audit of the missing items on July 28 — 61 days after the drugs were found in Zopatti’s desk.
 
Yeah so Police Officers need an LTC to purchase firearms and ammunition then huh?[laugh2]
In MA legally yes.

Allegedly a Mass State Trooper (in uniform) purchased ammo at the Attleboro Wal-Mart many years ago. I don't know if it was a sting or not, but she allegedly didn't show any LTC and the end result was that the store lost their state license to sell ammo and guns for 3 years. This happened perhaps 10 yrs ago.
 
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