Massachusetts Pepper Spray and Stun Gun Laws (2026)

Massachusetts regulates pepper spray and stun guns through two very different systems. Pepper spray, called "self-defense spray" in the statute, was decoupled from firearms licensing in 2014: an adult 18 or older can buy and possess it with no permit at all, while anyone under 18 needs a self-defense spray permit. Stun guns are a different story. An outright possession ban stood until the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck it down in 2018, but the Legislature's fix folded stun guns into the firearms-licensing system rather than freeing them from it: since October 2024, a stun gun is legally a "firearm" under Massachusetts General Laws c. 140, Section 121, so carrying one outside a residence or place of business without a license to carry is the same felony that applies to an unlicensed handgun, and even keeping one at a residence or place of business without the licensing that Section 129C requires is a separate crime under c. 269, Section 10(h)(1).

Jurisdiction scope: This page covers Massachusetts state law only, principally General Laws c. 140, Sections 121, 121F, 122C, 122D, 129B, 131, and 131J, and c. 269, Section 10. It does not cover municipal ordinances or the full firearms-licensing statute beyond the sections cross-referenced here.

Is pepper spray legal in Massachusetts?

Yes, for an adult, with no license or permit required. Massachusetts General Laws c. 140, Section 122D(a) states: "No person under 18 years of age may purchase or possess self-defense spray without a self-defense spray permit issued by a licensing authority in accordance with section 121F." Read together with Section 121's definition of "self-defense spray" (which covers "chemical mace, pepper spray or any device or instrument which contains, propels or emits a liquid, gas, powder or other substance" designed to incapacitate), the statute's restriction runs only against people under 18: an adult needs no license, card, or permit to buy or carry pepper spray in Massachusetts. This is the 2014 change that separated self-defense spray from the state's firearms-licensing system, where it had previously required an FID card.

For a person under 18, Section 122D(b) allows a local licensing authority to issue a self-defense spray permit starting at age 15, or as young as 12 with a parent or guardian's written consent, "if the person is not a prohibited person or unsuitable under section 121F." Section 121F(j) defines "prohibited person" for this purpose to include anyone convicted or adjudicated of a felony, a misdemeanor punishable by more than 2 years, a violent crime, certain firearms or controlled-substance offenses, or a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, along with people currently subject to specified restraining or harassment-prevention orders, an outstanding arrest warrant, or a dishonorable discharge from the armed forces. Because an adult needs no permit at all, this prohibited-person screen applies to minors applying for a permit, not to adult possession. A permit is valid for 3 years and the holder must report an address change through the state's electronic firearm registration system within 30 days; failing to do so is cause for revocation or suspension under Section 122D(d).

Section 122C sets the penalties. Selling self-defense spray without being licensed as a seller under Section 122 is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 2 years in a house of correction. A licensed seller who sells to a buyer under 18 who lacks a permit faces a fine of up to $300, and a person under 18 found in possession without a permit faces the same $300 fine. Section 122D's own text does not set a capacity, concentration, or formula limit on the spray itself; unlike some states, Massachusetts regulates who may possess self-defense spray rather than how strong or how large the canister can be.

Are stun guns legal in Massachusetts?

Legal to possess with a license, not without one. Massachusetts General Laws c. 140, Section 131J banned civilian stun-gun possession outright for decades. In Ramirez v. Commonwealth, 479 Mass. 331 (2018), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that absolute ban unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 decision in Caetano v. Massachusetts, which had vacated an earlier Massachusetts ruling upholding the same ban. The SJC declared Section 131J facially invalid rather than narrowing it to exclude only "prohibited persons," because the ban was written as a flat prohibition on possession by any person, with only law-enforcement exceptions, and the court could not limit it to prohibited persons without engaging in the quintessentially legislative work of rewriting State law. The court stayed its judgment for 60 days to let the Legislature act.

The Legislature's fix did not stop with Section 131J. St. 2024, c. 135, Section 20 rewrote the definition of "Firearm" in Section 121 itself: "'Firearm', a stun gun, pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, large capacity firearm, assault-style firearm and machine gun, loaded or unloaded, which is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a shot or bullet... provided, however, that 'firearm' shall not include any antique firearm or permanently inoperable firearm." Because Section 121's definitions govern every section from Section 122 to Section 131Y, a stun gun is now a "firearm" everywhere that word appears in Massachusetts' firearms-licensing chapter and in the carrying statute, c. 269, Section 10. That change is itself on the ballot: Question 9: Firearms Regulation appears on the November 3, 2026 state election ballot. Section 131J itself was left in place, but its role is narrower than full licensing: "Sections 131 3/4, 131K and 131P shall not apply to stun guns. The secretary of public safety and security shall promulgate regulations restricting access or use of stun guns by non-licensed persons and establishing minimum safety and quality standards, safe storage requirements, education and safety training requirements and law enforcement training on the appropriate use of stun guns, which shall require that any stun gun purchased or used by a law enforcement or public safety official include a mechanism for tracking the number of times the stun gun has been fired." None of the three exempted sections is a licensing requirement: Section 131 3/4 is the assault-style-firearm roster, Section 131K is a civil-liability rule for selling a firearm without an approved safety device, and Section 131P is the basic-firearms-safety-certificate requirement for FID card and license applicants. Exempting a stun gun from the roster, the safety-device rule, and the safety-course rule only matters because a stun gun is otherwise treated as a firearm, which after the 2024 amendment it is.

That makes the license to carry, not Section 131J, the statute that controls whether a person may lawfully carry a stun gun in Massachusetts. Section 131(a) provides that "a license shall entitle a holder thereof... to purchase, rent, lease, borrow, possess and carry firearms," and a stun gun is now one; buying one from a dealer runs through Section 122(a), which lets a licensing authority grant a dealer's license only to someone 21 or older who is not a prohibited person and has completed the online dealer training Section 125 requires. Carrying a stun gun outside a residence or place of business without a Section 131 license to carry is punishable under c. 269, Section 10(a): "imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two and one-half years nor more than five years, or for not less than 18 months nor more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction," a sentence the statute says "shall not be reduced to less than 18 months, nor suspended." Section 131(d) limits who can even apply for that license: "A lawful resident 21 years of age or older residing within the jurisdiction of the licensing authority." A firearm identification card, available starting at 18 (or 15 with parental consent), does not fill the gap: Section 129B(c) limits an FID card to "rifles and shotguns that are not large capacity or semi-automatic" and says the card "shall not entitle a holder thereof to transfer, possess or carry any other firearm... except under the direct supervision of a holder of a license to carry firearms at an incorporated shooting club or a licensed shooting range." That club-or-range exception does not cover ordinary possession, so an 18, 19, or 20 year old has no license that covers a stun gun.

Section 10(a) is the carrying offense, but it is not the only one. The same section's paragraph (h)(1) makes it a crime to "own, possess or transfer a firearm or ammunition without complying with the provisions of section 129C," punishable by up to 2 years in a jail or house of correction or a fine of up to $500 for a first offense; a second offense is punishable by up to 2 years in a house of correction, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Section 129C is the statute that lets a person possess a firearm without an FID card or license to carry, and its exemptions (a person surrendering a firearm, a returning or new resident for 60 days, an heir or devisee for 60 days, a supervised retail customer, a photographer or writer, a common carrier, a bank or institutional lender holding collateral, certain museums and veterans' organizations, military and police, and a nonresident's rifle or shotgun) do not include a resident who simply keeps a stun gun at a residence or place of business. Because Section 129B(c) excludes a stun gun from FID-card coverage, the only way to comply with Section 129C for a stun gun is to hold a license to carry issued under Section 131 (or a Section 131F temporary license to carry, limited to nonresidents and to residents for sports competition). Unlicensed possession of a stun gun at a residence or place of business is therefore its own crime under Section 10(h)(1), separate from and less severe than the carrying offense in Section 10(a): up to 2 years in a jail or house of correction or a fine of up to $500 for a first offense; a second offense is up to 2 years in a house of correction, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.

A claim circulating on law-firm and retailer sites says Massachusetts stun guns are effectively unregulated because no FID card or license to carry is "required" for them by name. That claim traces to a keyword search of Section 129C: the word "stun" never appears there. But Section 129C is written in terms of "a firearm," not "a stun gun," and a stun gun is a firearm under Section 121's current definition. The absence of the word "stun" from Section 129C does not mean stun guns are exempt from licensing; it means the statute never singles them out because they are already covered by the general term.

Where you can't carry either device

Massachusetts General Laws c. 269, Section 10(j) makes it a crime to carry a firearm or "other dangerous weapon" in any building or on the grounds of an elementary or secondary school, college, or university, including on transportation used for students of that institution, without written authorization from the board or officer in charge, "notwithstanding any license obtained by the person pursuant to chapter 140." A license to carry is no defense on school grounds. The offense is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, up to 2 years imprisonment, or both, and a school officer, faculty member, or administrative officer who fails to report a violation is guilty of a separate misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500. As amended by St. 2025, c. 14, Section 51, effective August 5, 2025, the exemption for law enforcement now also covers an officer certified under c. 6E. Section 10(j) opens with its own definition for that paragraph only: "'firearm' shall mean any pistol, revolver, rifle or smoothbore arm from which a shot, bullet or pellet can be discharged," which does not reach a stun gun. But Section 10(o), which closes the whole section, separately provides that "for purposes of this section, the terms 'ammunition' and 'firearm' shall have the same meaning as those terms are defined in section 121 of chapter 140," and Section 121 now includes a stun gun. The statute does not say whether paragraph (j)'s own narrower definition or Section 10(o)'s section-wide one controls. Either way, a stun gun on school grounds is reachable at minimum as an "other dangerous weapon," a term Section 10(j) does not itself define. The larger risk for a stun gun is not this school-grounds paragraph but the rest of Section 10: carrying one anywhere outside a residence or place of business without a license to carry is the Section 10(a) felony described above, whether or not the location is near a school, and even keeping one at a residence or place of business without complying with Section 129C is the separate Section 10(h)(1) crime described above.

Section 10(k) is a second, separate restricted-places rule, and it reaches a stun gun without the definitional doubt that surrounds paragraph (j). Section 10(k)(1) provides: "Whoever possesses a firearm, loaded or unloaded, as defined in section 121 of chapter 140, in a prohibited area, and knows or reasonably should know such location is a prohibited area, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment in the house of correction for not more than 21/2 years, or both such fine and imprisonment." Section 10(k)(2) defines a "prohibited area" as a place owned, leased, or under the control of state, county, or municipal government and used for government administration, judicial or court administrative proceedings, or correctional services, including its buildings, grounds, or parking areas (state-owned public land open to hunting is excluded, and a municipality may vote to exclude its own administrative buildings), and separately as a location in use for storing or tabulating ballots while voting or tabulation is occurring, or a polling place or early voting site while open for voting or within 150 feet of the building entrance. Because Section 10(k)(1) names "section 121 of chapter 140" directly, a stun gun is squarely within it without the paragraph (j)/(o) definitional question. Holding a Section 131 license to carry is not a defense. The only defense in Section 10(k)(4) is that a licensed possessor "securely stored said firearm in a vehicle while within the prohibited area in accordance with sections 131C and 131L of chapter 140." Section 10(k)(5) exempts certified law enforcement officers, qualified and qualified retired officers under federal law, and on-duty security guards. Section 10(k) does not reach pepper spray, which is "self-defense spray" under Section 121, not a "firearm."

One more clause of the same statute is not a place restriction at all. Section 10(b) makes it a separate offense to be armed with, or to have on the person or under the person's control in a vehicle, a billy or other dangerous weapon when arrested on a warrant for an alleged crime or while committing a breach or disturbance of the public peace. The penalty is two and one half to five years in state prison, or six months to two and one half years in a jail or house of correction, except that a defendant the court finds has no prior felony conviction may be punished by a fine of up to $50 or up to two and one half years in a jail or house of correction. Section 10(b) does not define other dangerous weapon, so whether a particular canister of self-defense spray falls inside it is decided case by case, and the clause bites only on arrest, not on ordinary carrying.

Federal law: what it does and does not reach

No federal statute regulates a civilian's purchase or possession of pepper spray or a stun gun. Federal law matters in three places.

Federal buildings. Under 18 U.S.C. § 930(a), whoever knowingly possesses or causes to be present "a firearm or other dangerous weapon in a Federal facility (other than a Federal court facility)" faces a fine, imprisonment of up to 1 year, or both. Subsection (e) sets up to 2 years for a federal court facility, and subsection (b) up to 5 years where the weapon is intended to be used in a crime. Section 930(g)(2) defines the term:

The term "dangerous weapon" means a weapon, device, instrument, material, or substance, animate or inanimate, that is used for, or is readily capable of, causing death or serious bodily injury, except that such term does not include a pocket knife with a blade of less than 2½ inches in length.

The definition names neither device. Whether a particular spray or stun gun is "readily capable of" causing serious bodily injury is a question of fact the statute does not answer. Subsection (d)(3) exempts "the lawful carrying of firearms or other dangerous weapons in a Federal facility incident to hunting or other lawful purposes," and subsection (h) requires notice of the ban to be posted at each public entrance. A "Federal facility" is "a building or part thereof owned or leased by the Federal Government, where Federal employees are regularly present for the purpose of performing their official duties."

Air travel. The Transportation Security Administration's screening rules, which are agency policy rather than statute, bar both devices from carry-on bags. One 4 fl. oz. (118 ml) container of mace or pepper spray is permitted in checked baggage if it has a safety mechanism to prevent accidental discharge, and sprays containing more than 2 percent by mass of tear gas (CS or CN) are prohibited in checked baggage. Tasers, stun guns and other electro-shock weapons may travel in checked baggage only if transported so the device cannot discharge accidentally. Airlines may set stricter rules.

National parks. National Park Service regulations prohibit possessing, carrying or using a "weapon" in a park area except as the regulations provide (36 CFR 2.4(b)(1)). 36 CFR 1.4 defines "weapon" to include an "irritant gas device" and any "weapon the possession of which is prohibited under the laws of the State in which the park area or portion thereof is located."

Disclaimer: This article provides general legal information about Massachusetts's pepper spray and stun gun laws as of September 2026. It is not legal advice. Consult a lawyer licensed in Massachusetts for advice about a specific situation.

For a state-by-state comparison, see pepper spray and stun gun laws by state. Massachusetts's self-defense statutes are covered separately on the Massachusetts self-defense laws page.

Statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of 2026-09-18. Last updated: 2026-09-18.