Laws of Plymouth Colony (1671). Whereas several persons have been greatly endangered by setting of guns, it is enacted by the Court and the authority thereof that none shall sett any guns except in enclosures and that the gun be sufficiently enclosed so as it be secure from hurting man or beast and that he that setteth the gun do give warning or notice thereof to all the neighbors on penalty of paying a fine of five pounds to the use of the Colony for every default.

Any person who shall, within this State, hereafter manufacture, or cause to be manufactured, or sell, or expose for sale, any instrument or weapon of the kind usually known as slung shot, shall be punished therefor by a fine not less than fifty dollars, or by imprisonment in the common jail or house of correction, for a term not exceeding six months.

Fitchburg Revised Ordinances. § 75. No person shall sell or keep for sale, within the limits of the city of Fitchburg, any toy pistol, toy cannon, or any other such article in which explosive compounds of any kind are used, or of which such compounds form a part. § 76. No person shall have, use, explode, fire off or discharge, within the limits of the city of Fitchburg, any toy pistol, toy cannon, or any other such article in which explosive compounds of any kind are used, or of which such compounds form a part.