Massachusetts Gun Licensing After Bruen: Nonresidents and Travelers

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | 30 Years Massachusetts Criminal Defense

A common belief holds that the decision of the United States Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), ended state licensing of firearms. It did not. In a series of 2025 decisions, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the current licensing scheme and confirmed that carrying a firearm without a Massachusetts license remains a crime. This post explains those decisions and what they mean for a visitor, a traveler, or a new resident. It supplements the firm’s pages on Massachusetts firearms charges and on firearms offenses for nonresidents and out-of-state travelers.

What Bruen Decided

In Bruen, the United States Supreme Court struck down a New York licensing regime that gave officials open-ended discretion to deny a license to a qualified applicant. The Court held that the Second Amendment right to carry a firearm for self-defense extends outside the home, and that a firearm regulation is valid only if it is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The decision called into question discretionary, may-issue licensing standards, but it did not prohibit licensing itself.

The Massachusetts Statute

Massachusetts had already replaced its discretionary standard with a shall-issue standard effective August 10, 2022. A resident applies for a license to carry under G. L. c. 140, § 131, and a nonresident applies for a temporary license under G. L. c. 140, § 131F. Under both provisions, a license is issued to an applicant who is not a prohibited person and is not determined to be unsuitable. Carrying a firearm without the required license is an offense under G. L. c. 269, § 10.

The 2025 Decisions

The Supreme Judicial Court upheld the current nonresident scheme in Commonwealth v. Marquis, 495 Mass. ___ (2025). The court held that the shall-issue nonresident statute is facially consistent with the Second Amendment, because a standard that keeps firearms from demonstrably dangerous persons fits the historical tradition described in Bruen. In a companion case, Commonwealth v. Donnell, 495 Mass. 471 (2025), the court held that the older may-issue version of the nonresident statute, in effect before August 10, 2022, was facially unconstitutional, because it gave the colonel of the State police unbounded discretion that could not be severed from the rest of the statute.

The court addressed the resident scheme in Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, 496 Mass. 627 (2025). The court held that the resident licensing scheme is not facially unconstitutional, because it applies validly to persons the Commonwealth may disarm, including a person convicted of a felony or a violent crime, and it confirmed that unlicensed possession of a firearm remains a crime in Massachusetts. The court also limited its earlier decision in Donnell to the extent that Donnell had not accounted for that valid application.

What This Means for a Visitor, Traveler, or New Resident

The practical rule does not change. A person who carries a firearm in Massachusetts must hold a Massachusetts license, and a license or permit from another state does not satisfy that requirement. A nonresident who wants to carry must apply for a temporary license under § 131F. Federal law provides a narrow safe-passage defense for a traveler who is transporting an unloaded firearm, locked and separate from its ammunition, through Massachusetts between two places where the firearm may lawfully be possessed. A traveler who arrives at Logan Airport and discovers a firearm in a bag should not assume that declaring it to an airline cures the problem, because Massachusetts law still applies. The firearms page for nonresidents and travelers explains the lawful options and the defenses in detail.

Attorney Serpa defends firearms charges across the Massachusetts District Courts and the Boston Municipal Court. For a confidential consultation, call 617.936.0201.