As a Mass resident I have no problem with the law requiring firearms be kept locked. You lock your car don't you?
For my household defense I have a pistol safe with an ergonomic lock I can open one handed in the dark. I don't want anybody but me accessing my guns, I ain't here all the time, locks make sense! Gun locks prevent children and fools from having regrettable accidents.
Besides most of my firearms are black powder and aren't required to be locked anyway.

I can't really see how the law would be unconstitutional, although I haven't read the case. I don't live in MA, but I keep mine in a quick access pistol safe because I have a little one about. If we didn't have a child, I'd probably do the same because I don't want a burglar to have quick and easy carry off access. Not sure how I feel about a mandate from the state telling me I have to do it in my own home, though.

One moment Mr Bad Guy while I remove my trigger lock!

they are making there residents lock their guns up they might as well make them unload them to.

Jeff4066

YOU GOT IT!

“False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicide, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.”
-Ceasare Beccaria, 18th century criminologist, in On Crimes and Punishments

My kids know not to touch my guns and if you ask them what would happen if they did? They will say, you do not want to go there!

Let’s face it, these draconian laws are for those who grew up without outdoor plumbing and cannot function without their daily dose of Prozac. They live there life watching Oprah Wind’freyand Rosie O'Funald Cake to learn how to live there life. They live, breath and follow these mindless gnomes’s believing everything they say is true and factual!

The other day, a couple believes the movie 2012 to be true. It’s interesting how people will ignore the Bible, yet they go to a movie like Star Wars, Avatar and some blood sucking creature to believe in it and such of a world is real.

Question, you have a intruder in your bedroom. You have the phone in one hand and a Glock in the other. Which one will you use first!

I haven't been a little kid that needed looking after for my own good for half a century. I sure am tired of a nanny state always chasing after me trying to wipe my nose for me. All I want out of the government is them out of my business. If I need this level of looking after, I could live in England where at least the beer is better and the whisky cheaper. How about we get back to a land of the free and home of the brave instead of big brother dictating to me how I store my personal property inside my own home. "A government governs best that governs least"

Mike Diehl-
I don't consider my self a fool, nor do I need advice on how to store a firearm. I will store them as I was taught, long before an intrusive government thought to try to mandate laws for my safety.
Oh, BTW, the way I was taught to store a firearm was with loads in the magazine, ready to be chambered. 50+ years, no accidents, and a ready firearm with the simple throw of the bolt, lever, etc. Pistols are a different story, loaded and ready at all times.

Another example of the good guys being made into the bad guys. Does Massachusetts require burglars to carry their weapons with a lock on them? Obviously this will be going to the SCOTUS.

This ruling is like saying that citizens can say what they want about their government as long as they do it in a sound proofed closet. Duh.

re-read the heller case..the topic of locking a firearm was discussed and it was either Alito or Scalia that commented on the stupidity of such a law....Another case for the supreme court???

When you don't need it securing it is fine but when you need it it's best to have it available and handy than locked up and out of reach.

If you're home and have positive control of it it is your responsibility as an adult, gun owner to judge the need or lack of need to utilize your firearm and exercise your right to protect and defend yourself.

Locking a firearm up may prevent you from gettin killed by your own firearm but it may also cost you your life in a situation you could have detterred or defended yourself.

If I could keep my family safe and from being assaulted and or murdered I chose to accept that responsibility and fire first We know the cliche that Clay always says has truth to it... When seconds count cops are Minutes away.

I guess Massachusettes thinks that Minutes outway seconds.

I have mixed emotions about the readiness of guns in the bedroom. I don't remember the state but I received a bulletion where a police officer when the phone rang at night picked up his service weapon which was beside the phone and shot himself in the head. I'm not saying this will happen all the time but I don't like to take the chance. Sometimes when I awaken I have cobwebs in my head and it takes a few seconds to shake them. My firearm was always ready but not quite that ready. I did have to get out of bed to access my firearm. In my hunter ed classes I tell the students they are 1000 times more likely to kill themselves a family member or a neighbor or friend from having a loaded firearm in the house than they ever are from having someone breaking into their house and doing them harm.

I agree that this is a stupid law, but how would it be enforced? Do they have the police come around and check to see that your guns are locked up? I certainly hope not! I for one would keep my guns in a safe place but close at hand, and to hell with the law. Like I said how are they going to enforce it?

What I am concerned with is how the local authorities will react in cases of "declared state of emergency" and proceed to confiscate weapons. This is much easier when the local police have lists of who has what, via local registering of arms. A state of emergency can be declared for a natural disaster such as hurricane Katrina, an earthquake, tornado, a blizzard or economic collapse. And may be I am funny that way but it seems to me that is when you need you weapons the most.
In the best of times when seconds count the police are minutes away....
Then it really doesn't matter what was locked and how it was locked.

I don't see why having to keep my 1911 in a pistol safe slows me down. I'd have at least to keep it in a drawer, even if a lock wasn't required, you don't just leave it sit loaded on top of the dresser. I plant my hand on top of that box on the plancent and the lid springs open and it is in my hand. I get security and speed. I ain't gonna carry all the time anyway so the gunsafe is the way to go.
Clay I agree it is stupid to classify black powder pistols as "nonfirearms" when they certainly did the job a hundred fifty years ago. But I haven't heard of any crimes committed with black powder recently either. I often encourage friends to start handgunning with BP revolvers just because they are less regulated. NYC must be different, considering that poor guy getting hasseled by Bloomberg for his Flintlock Kentucky rifle.
I don't leave any of my guns, BP or modern cartridge type "laying about". Modern guns have trigger locks or a locking range box. BP guns have nice wood cases. Only the swords, spears, axes and other medieval terror weapons are out ready for easy access. But hey, any fool can learn to point a gun in a day or less. It takes years to make a swordsman. I pity the poor fool who takes a sword from my display rack and threatens anybody with it. They will experience something similar to "Bokkendori". I couldn't tell you how many hours I have spent practicing taking pointy things away from people in the Dojo! At any rate, if any house on my street were to be broken into, I would suspect our house would not be the first picked, our housemates kinda resemble the cast of "Deliverance".

i'll do as i wish with my firearms in my own home and if the state or our so-called government doesn't like it, come get 'em! ask yourself later, Was it worth it?

A lot of great comments so I'm not going to add one.not much more to be said,an extra + for some and a few for Clay Cooper

Forty miles away from closest law enforcement. No one to come and help in case of intruder. I have my guns loaded and ready in the corner. My father did the same and his before and so on. No accidents. We teach our children and that keeps them from being curious. Give them some toy guns and teach them what happens with them. Take them out and shoot some rounds in front of them and explain what will happen if they mess with the guns and they shoot themselves or someone else. Don't be scared to teach kids. My two year old knows not to touch my shotgun in the corner, so yours can also. If you teach them young they will be less curious and they won't mess with them. I teach my children that my guns are always loaded, and always will be just in case. Never know when a skunk is wandering around. If you always keep you guns loaded, you always know they are loaded and you will treat them that way. The least safe people I have known always get careless after they unload their guns. Someday they will learn the hard way.
The main point I want to express is that people should be able to take care of their own and don't need the gov. telling us when we can and can't have our guns loaded or locked up.
As for if someone comes after me with a sword, I tell them they should have known better to bring a knife to a gunfight.

Even if it weren't the law here, I would still lock my guns. That way I know that I am the only person who will have access to my guns, which is a good thing.

The Law is only when your not home those guns need to be locked.When your home the guns are under your control.you can have a gun in your night stand unlocked when your there look up the language.