Under federal law a felony conviction bars possession of a firearm or ammunition — and shooting at a range is possession. What that covers, what Massachusetts adds, and whether there is a way back.
The short answer people are usually looking for is uncomfortable but simple: under federal law, a person convicted of a felony cannot possess a firearm or ammunition — and shooting at a range is possession. Whether you can stand in the building is a different question from whether you can pick anything up.
18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) makes it unlawful for anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison to ship, transport, possess or receive a firearm or ammunition. There is no range exception, no supervision exception, and no "it was only for ten minutes" exception.
Handing a firearm to someone you know is prohibited is its own federal offence for the person doing the handing. That is why a range that knows will refuse — it is not squeamishness, and it is not negotiable at the counter.
| Activity | Possession? | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Firing a rented firearm | Yes | The clearest case there is |
| Holding someone else's firearm | Yes | Actual possession, however briefly |
| Loading magazines | Yes | Ammunition counts too, and people forget that |
| Driving a licensed friend and their firearms | Often yes | Constructive possession — access and control, not just touch |
| Watching from behind the firing line | Generally no | But range policy may still say no, and many do |
Constructive possession is the one that catches people. You do not have to be holding anything to be found in possession of it — being in control of the space it is in can be enough.
Separately from the federal bar, Massachusetts treats a felony conviction as a disqualifier for a License to Carry or an FID card. Some convictions disqualify permanently; others sit under time-based bars. The state's disqualifier framework is set out in our disqualifiers guide, which is the better starting point if what you actually want to know is whether you could ever be licensed here.
Being ineligible for a Massachusetts license and being federally prohibited are two different findings. It is possible to clear one and not the other, and the federal bar is the one that governs whether you can touch a firearm at a range at all.
Sometimes, and it is slow. The routes that exist are things like a pardon, an expungement or set-aside, or a state-level restoration of civil rights that also lifts the federal disability — all of them specific to the jurisdiction of the conviction. Federal relief under § 925(c) has been unfunded for decades and is not a practical path.
None of that is something a range can assess, and none of it is something you should rely on a website for. A lawyer who does firearms disability work in the state where the conviction happened is the only person who can tell you where you stand.
The federal bar keys off the possible sentence, not the label — a state misdemeanour punishable by more than two years can still trigger it. A qualifying domestic violence misdemeanour is prohibiting regardless of the sentence. Massachusetts also disqualifies on a range of misdemeanours that surprise people, including some OUI and drug convictions.
Most people asking this question are asking about someone else, or about an old case they are not sure about. If you are clear, a first range visit in Massachusetts does not require a license at all — supervised shooting is lawful, which is exactly what our Intro To Shooting session is. Ammunition included, a lane, an instructor behind you, no license needed.
And if you are ready to be licensed, the four-to-five-hour license class includes live fire on our own range the same day.
Elsewhere on the site: Getting licensed · Massachusetts gun law · Where you can carry · Your town · Who it's for