Is Selling an Exploding Golf Ball a Crime in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts put the exploding golf ball in the fire prevention chapter. M.G.L. c. 148, sec. 55 covers manufacturing one, selling one, knowingly using one, or having one in possession for the purpose of sale, and the first offence is a fine of not more than $500. A later offence carries a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

The section describes the ball by what is inside it

There is no brand name and no product list. The words are “any golf ball containing any acid, fluid, gas or other substance tending to cause the ball to explode and to inflict bodily injury.” Two things have to be true of the ball: it holds one of those substances, and the substance tends to make the ball explode and cause bodily injury. A ball that simply comes apart on impact is not what the sentence describes.

Four acts, one sentence

Manufacture, sell, knowingly use, possess for the purpose of sale. Reading the list is the fastest way to see where the line sits. The novelty shop that stocks them and the person who tees one up for a friend are both inside the text. A person who was handed one and never used it is outside the four acts as they are written.

The second offence is where jail appears

First offence, a fine capped at five hundred dollars. Any subsequent offence, a fine capped at one thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. That structure is worth reading carefully, because the jail exposure the video mentions is attached to the repeat, not to the first time.

What this page is not

This page describes what section 55 says. Whether a particular novelty ball meets the description, how a court would treat a specific set of facts, and whether some other provision could apply to the same conduct are questions about a real situation, not about the text. Read the section yourself at the link above, and telephone the firm about anything that actually happened.