Commonwealth v. Rhodes

On behalf of the Commonwealth, a ballistics expert from the firearms identification section of the Department of Public Safety, Lieutenant James T. McGuinness, testified that the weapon which the defendant has been charged with unlawfully carrying (G. L. c. 269, § 10[a]) “could not be fired.” The unlawful carrying statute speaks of a firearm as defined in G. L. c. 140, § 121. The latter statute, as amended through St. 1983, c. 516, § 1, describes as a firearm a weapon “from which a shot or bullet can be discharged.” As matters were left at the close of the Commonwealth’s evidence, the handgun…