Sean,

I used to live in Ma. but it's been around 10 years since I
had gotten my handgun permit renewed there. At least when I was
licensed there, the ONLY place you could leave your gun
unattended was in your house. i.e. If you had it locked in the
trunk of your car, someone stole the vehicle and then used the
gun in the commission of a crime, YOU were held responsible.
This at least applied to handguns, but I'm unsure about long guns.
One of the problems in Ma., at least when getting a permit, was
that the usage listed on the permit was at the discretion of the
local jurisdiction. This was a problem if you wanted to carry for
personal protection and the local chief of police would issue a
permit for target shooting. If the permit usage was listed as
target shooting, you were theoretically only allowed to carry your
handgun to and from the range.

I believe it was GOAL (Gun owners action league) which was
pushing for the usage to be listed as 'For Any Lawful Purpose'
which was a big help and a lot of jurisdictions agreed since
there wasn't a rash of vigilanteism or wild west shootouts that
the anti-gun crowd always predicts.

In summary, be VERY careful and get as much info as possible
before even considering a handgun on the boat! I also suggest
you check out GOAL's website as well as support them. They are
there to help gun owners of Ma. and I suspect will have the
info on long guns if you choose to go that route.

-Jim


Sean wrote:
(Already posted this on rec.guns)

Hi,
I keep my boat in massachusetts waters and need to know the law
regarding secure storage on a boat.

Does anyone know what's required for both long guns and hand guns?

Is a locked wooden locker good enough?

Do I need trigger locks?

Can I leave guns on board "permanently" if they are properly stored?

Any help appreciated,
Thanks
Sean