MA laws on purchasing

[John Barbers]

Many weapons are prohibited(daggers, nunchucks, ninja stars) from being carried in the state of MA, but are they legal to be bought online from another state and ship to my address? There is a law that is against the manufacturing or selling within the state, but what if I bought them online from a vendor out of state? I tried looking up answers, and most websites say they are legal to be bought online and shipped to my address. There are very few sources that said these are illegal in the state, period. I just want to double check with residents here.

I am looking to specifically purchase some daggers and ninja stars from a website, but I am not sure if I will run into problems. Anyone from MA that can clarify or share their experience?

Thanks!

 

[glistam]

MA's got two laws on knives/sharps:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter269/Section10
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter269/Section12

Section 10, skip to part (b). But basically it only regulates carry, not ownership or purchase. I broke down that travesty of a run-on sentence in this previous post.

Section 12 is the one you're probably referring to. However, it only makes making or selling them illegal, not buying or owning. For that to be true, the law would have to say "possess" or "purchase."

 

[John Barbers]

Yeah, unlike laws written on this like California's, which clearly state possessing, owning, and importing such items are unlawful. MA seems to be strict only on ownership of firearms, but not other weapons. Just that we can't distribute them around or carry them.

Thanks again, glistam. Nice to see that you are a long time poster here. I appreciate the clarifications!

 

[stelAl]

MA's got two laws on knives/sharps:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter269/Section10
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter269/Section12

Section 10, skip to part (b). But basically it only regulates carry, not ownership or purchase. I broke down that travesty of a run-on sentence in this previous post.

Section 12 is the one you're probably referring to. However, it only makes making or selling them illegal, not buying or owning. For that to be true, the law would have to say "possess" or "purchase."

Thanks, this info is just in time for my husband.

 

[Knife_Collector_101]

While MA doesn’t seem to be quite as bad as NY, I’ve read stories about people having trouble with having certain knives shipped to the state. Seems like an issue with assisted openers and similar knives. Anybody there still experience this issue?

 

[John Barbers]

While MA doesn’t seem to be quite as bad as NY, I’ve read stories about people having trouble with having certain knives shipped to the state. Seems like an issue with assisted openers and similar knives. Anybody there still experience this issue?

About 10 years back when I first got into knives, I went on ebay and bought a bulk of Kershaw leeks. There wasn't an issue with shipping those to my home here in the state.

From my understanding of the law and what I have taken from knowledgeable people such as glistam, there is no law against purchasing any kind of blade. MA seems to be big on firearms, but not on other kinds of weapons. So unless it's a gun or you're out there waving your deadly blades around, you should be good purchasing, owning and possessing it in the safety of your home. I believe the laws are there to limit the amount of "deadly weapons" floating around in the state, but it doesn't ban them. These "deadly weapons" are prohibited from mass production and distribution for that reason, I'd imagine.

Some websites are unsure of the laws and don't dare ship them here. If it's shipped with a tracking number, you're good to go. I wouldn't worry about purchasing a knife. It's ridiculous to think that customs would be examining knives and say "oh, this knife has a spring in it. it's going back." Most likely, the package will end up on your doorstep one day. The bigger issue is finding a distributor that is willing to ship it, but that isn't really an issue because there doesn't seem to be a law against that.

 

[glistam]

Some websites are unsure of the laws and don't dare ship them here. If it's shipped with a tracking number, you're good to go. I wouldn't worry about purchasing a knife. It's ridiculous to think that customs would be examining knives and say "oh, this knife has a spring in it. it's going back." Most likely, the package will end up on your doorstep one day.

Yes exactly. There are companies that will label items as "cannot ship to MA" but this is purely that company's personal opinion/policy, not a matter of law. My experiences examining several knife seller's policies have been that very few of them have any kind of qualified legal council. Frankly most of these policies are so stupid the company should be embarrassed. It is, however, their right to refuse sale based on their policies, so they cannot be forced to sell to MA addresses.

Regarding the shipping process, items mailed within the US have extremely robust legal protection, requiring a federal warrant to open or examine. It's only packages coming from outside the US that can be searched by customs, and like John said, autos are not very easy to discern from non-auto knives unless a specific officer knows that exact model or opens the package up and starts handling it, which would be highly unusual. They normally are prioritizing things like drugs, explosives, bugs, plants etc.