Is It Illegal to Sell a Slingshot in Massachusetts?

The slingshot is on a Massachusetts weapons list, in writing. M.G.L. c. 269, sec. 12 makes it an offence to manufacture, cause to be manufactured, sell, or expose for sale a sling shot, and it puts that word in the same sentence as the blackjack, the bludgeon, the nunchaku and metallic knuckles. The penalty is a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $1,000, or imprisonment for not more than six months.

Two similar words, both in the list

The section names the “slung shot” and the “sling shot” separately. The slung shot is the old weighted cord; the sling shot is the forked handle with elastic that everyone pictures. Both are on the list, which is why the everyday object ends up in a statute that otherwise reads like a museum case.

The four acts are about supply, not carrying

Manufacture, cause to be manufactured, sell, expose for sale. Section 12 is written at the shop and the workbench. “Expose for sale” is worth noticing on its own, because it reaches the display before any money moves. Possession and carrying live in other sections of chapter 269, and this page is not about those.

The sporting club proviso

Section 12 closes with a clause written for this one item: sling shots may be manufactured and sold to clubs or associations conducting sporting events where such sling shots are used. The exception is defined by the buyer, not by the design of the slingshot, which is a narrower opening than it first sounds.

The fine has a floor

Most of the odd Massachusetts penalties in this series are capped and nothing more. This one runs from fifty dollars up to a thousand, or imprisonment for not more than six months. A floor on a fine is a signal about how the Legislature graded the conduct.

What this page is not

This page describes what section 12 says. It does not say whether a particular product falls inside the list, how other sections of chapter 269 treat possession or carrying, or how a court would decide a real case. Read the section yourself at the link above, and telephone the firm about anything that actually happened.