Empty Cartidges possession of?

you should have seen the commotion when kids who picked up the brass blanks fired from the Garands at the memorial day parade. Hand a unlicensed friend a empty cartridge and then inform them they are felons.
 
you should have seen the commotion when kids who picked up the brass blanks fired from the Garands at the memorial day parade. Hand a unlicensed friend a empty cartridge and then inform them they are felons.

I remember doing this every year in the cub scouts after the 21 gun salute we'd all run up and grab the casings. nobody said a thing back then i think i still have some of them.
 
Many years ago my sons cub scout leader flipped out when she saw one of the projects we did right from the cub scout book where you take an fired 12 ga shell make cuts in the side and use it to hold the neckerchief. Now the state would probably remove him from my house for doing that.
 
It's not just empty hulls.

Whn my kid was in nursery school, they did a pasta sculpture. The teracher took me aside and said that he'd titled it, "A big gun-shooting place with many different guns." [shocked]

We'd been to the Ale and Quail Shoot (see sig) that weekend, so I told her, "Well, that's where we were this weekend!" [laugh]
 
It is so ridiculous

Every now and again I'll get a student who wants to take an empty casing home with their targets as a souvenir of their first time out. I feel bad when I have to remind them that as a component of ammunition, it is illegal. I don't even let them take a struck rimfire .22 casing away, even though it is completely useless.

What ever happened to common sense?
 
It isn't, it's a misdemeanor (MGL 269-10(h)(1)), though it is a lifetime LTC DQ, and a 5 year FID DQ.

In other words, it's enough of a penalty to act as a warning shot in terms of how f'ed up MA is, and that they should leave immediately. [laugh]

-Mike
 
Is this a sign of our creeping paranoia, or do people really get charged for holding a souvenir empty casing?

so what happens when you have junk brass and you want to scrap it. Does the guy at the scrap yard have to have an FID?

Recent case law has held that possession of a spent shell casing is a violation of MGL 269-10.

The court did not reach the question of spent shell casings as souvenirs or scrap metal...

Comm. v. Truong (2010) said:
This court concluded that G. L. c. 269, § 10(h), criminalizes the possession of spent shell casings, which constitute "cartridge cases" within the meaning of the statute; further, this court discerned no ambiguity in that term that would render the statute void for vagueness.

This court concluded that G. L. c.269, § 10(h), which prohibits the possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card, plainly bears a reasonable relation to a permissible legislative objective, i.e., the protection of the public from the danger posed by the assemblage and usage of ammunition, and thus does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; for the same reason, the statute does not violate the Massachusetts Constitution.

>snip<

[Note 6]Although we hold that G. L. c. 269, § 10(h), validly criminalizes unlicensed possession of any individual component of a cartridge, including shell casings, we note that we do not reach the question whether, or to what extent, the statute applies to unlicensed possession of shell casings for innocent purposes, such as for souvenirs or for resale as scrap metal.

http://masscases.com/cases/app/78/78massappct28.html
 
OffshoreJ Every day since I joined this site, I've found my self to hate Massachusetts more.

Boy you can say that again, we are ready to move (anyone want to buy a house in Mass?) Already looking at the better gun laws ect. in other states. Narrowing down to TX, or TN.

My daughter has wanted to be in forensics since she was three years old. She has quite the reference collection of spent brass, shotgun shells ect. Sort of like a coin collection. Jeez, I had to tell her that was frowned upon by the law...... she's best to keep it too herself.
Nice.
At least it's a good lesson on how ridiculous law makers can be.

.
 
Boy you can say that again, we are ready to move (anyone want to buy a house in Mass?) Already looking at the better gun laws ect. in other states. Narrowing down to TX, or TN.

My daughter has wanted to be in forensics since she was three years old. She has quite the reference collection of spent brass, shotgun shells ect. Sort of like a coin collection. Jeez, I had to tell her that was frowned upon by the law...... she's best to keep it too herself.
Nice.
At least it's a good lesson on how ridiculous law makers can be.

.

The law makers are not, unfortunately, ridiculous, as most of the people that vote for them think this sort of crap is a good idea. We know this as they keep getting elected.

The rot goes deep....
 
It can also be a problem if you should drop an empty casing in your car and let an unlicensed family member use your car. Cops love to stop teenagers and rip their cars apart looking for drugs and alcohol. They'd love to find one of daddy's empty .45 or .223 cases to jam up a car load of teenagers. Thats why you make everyone in the house get an LTC or FID as soon as they are old enough.
 
FYI I've asked everyone in my family to get a FID/LTC for this reason.

BUT... I asked my lawyer about this. What if I leave a couple of pieces of brass kicking around the trunk by accident. One of the kids is stopped and they find the brass, without benefit of a license. What does he think would happen.

His opinion was if the kid had no knowledge of it he felt it would be highly unlikely LE would do anything about it, especially with the explanation that Dad is a licensed shooter. And he felt even if LE tried, a DA would throw it out. The exception, he felt, is if it was a piggy-back charge, where they are just adding up a bunch of charges.

This is one lawyers opinion, albeit a very conservative lawyer who often errs on the side of caution.

All in all, MA laws make no sense, protecting us from things we don't need to be protected from. It confuses and befuddles me why our legislature and other elected officials waste time, money and effort on such nonsense. Especially when so many other states don't have anything remotely like this type of law.

I own a business here in MA. My mother and mother-in-law are here, along with the rest of the family. I can't move in the foreseeable future. But this stuff tears at my soul. I'm an honest, law abiding citizen that feels I'm constantly being nickle and dimed financially and via law and regulation. Just let me lead my life and spend our limited resources catching and punishing the bad guys.

It is a sad state of affairs when honorable folks need to worry about bullshit laws that threaten our personal freedoms.
 
Doesn't matter to me now (as I have the LTC_a no restrictions) But, there were quite a few years between having permits when I often test drove cars for customers, who were shooters and had plenty of spent brass or shot shells rolling around in the back.
Boy that would be a terrible reason to get jammed up.

My kid wants here FID on her 15th birthday anyway, so I guess that's good. She is headed in the right direction.
 
It can also be a problem if you should drop an empty casing in your car and let an unlicensed family member use your car. Cops love to stop teenagers and rip their cars apart looking for drugs and alcohol. They'd love to find one of daddy's empty .45 or .223 cases to jam up a car load of teenagers. Thats why you make everyone in the house get an LTC or FID as soon as they are old enough.

Back in the MAF List days there was someone in Central MA who's child faced this. One particular cop was out to get this teenager and when he noticed a piece of brass on the floor of the car was reported to say "I gotcha now" or something to that effect. Said child pulled out his/her (don't recall) FID card and the cop went "long faced"! I don't recall who posted that or if that person is now on NES, but there are "always some out there" that might just try to spoil someone's day.

Everyone qualified and of age in a gun-owner's household should get a permit regardless of their interest in guns.
 
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