Mass allows the chief in your town to choose to issue an unrestricted class A license (which allows concealed carry). Some towns, like Andover, the chief refuses to issue an unrestricted license unless you are LEO or it is work related. In other towns, a unrestricted lisence is all they issue.
Though I grew up in New Hampshire, I was born on Cape Cod (my family has a long history there, there is even a street named after us), and lived in Mass for a few years as an adult when my wife and I both worked in Boston. You need a license in Mass for everything, A Firearms ID card allows...
You don't have registration of every firearm, nor a requirement for a firearms license to possess any type of firearm, magazines, or any type of ammo, including components, even spent brass. Hell, even pepper spray requires a license.
I'm in North Andover. 26 miles and an hour and a half from Boston. I won't miss the licensing crap every few years, or the screwing that will come out of the legislature some time soon to make it worse.
Hey, another soon to be transplant from MA to MD here. The job offer my wife recieved was just too good to pass up. And though it may not seem possible, MD gun laws are a lot better than Mass. Coupled with lower house prices and auto insurance to boot.