18 Deaths by firearm in Massachusetts

Lewis B. Allyn (Louis) was an American chemistry professor and influential figure in the pure food movement at the time of his murder.

Crispus Attucks was an American stevedore of African and Native American descent, widely regarded as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre and thus the first American killed in the American Revolution. Historians disagree on whether he was a free man or an escaped slave, but most agree that he was of Native American and African descent. Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre published in 1770 did not refer to him as "black" nor as a "Negro"; it appears that Bostonians viewed him as being of mixed ethnicity. According to a contemporaneous account in the Pennsylvania Gazette, he was a "Mulattoe man, named Crispus Attucks, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New-Providence, and was here in order to go for North Carolina."

Christopher Lamont Bender was an American R&B singer who reached the national music charts in 1991 with the album entitled Draped before his murder.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven years later, they were electrocuted in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison.

During the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, two terrorists planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, which detonated 14 seconds and 210 yards (190 m) apart at 2:49 p.m., near the finish line of the race, killing 3 people and injuring hundreds of others, including 17 who lost limbs.

George Nixon Briggs was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. A Whig, Briggs served for twelve years in the United States House of Representatives, and served seven one-year terms as the 19th Governor of Massachusetts, from 1844 to 1851.

Adolfo Bruno, also known as "Big Al", was an Italian-born American mobster who was a caporegime with the Genovese crime family based in New York City, who ran an organized crime operation out of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Isaac Davis was a gunsmith and a militia officer who commanded a company of Minutemen from Acton, Massachusetts, during the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. In the months leading up to the Revolution, Davis set unusually high standards for his company in terms of equipment, training, and preparedness. His company was selected to lead the advance on the British Regulars during the Battle of Concord because his men were entirely outfitted with bayonets. During the American advance on the British at the Old North Bridge, Davis was among the first killed and was the first American officer to die in the Revolution.

Hakim Abdullah Jamal was an American activist, who was a cousin of Malcolm X and later became an associate of Michael X. Jamal wrote From the Dead Level, a memoir of his life and memories of Malcolm X. During his life, Jamal was romantically involved with several high-profile women, notably Jean Seberg, Diana Athill, and Gale Benson.

The murder of Odin Lloyd occurred on June 17, 2013, in North Attleborough, Massachusetts, USA. His death made international headlines when Aaron Hernandez, at the time a tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, was investigated as a suspect in the case. Lloyd had been a linebacker for a New England Football League (NEFL) semi-professional football team, the Boston Bandits, since 2007.

James Joseph "Buddy" McLean was an American mobster boss, who was the original boss of the Somerville, Massachusetts-based Winter Hill Gang during the 1960s. McLean was well known throughout the Greater Boston area as an unstoppable street fighter. He accumulated injuries including several scars on his neck and face as well as a damaged left eye. A friend of McLean once said, "He looks like a choir boy, but fights like the devil."

John Bannerman McLean was a Canadian professional baseball catcher between 1901 until 1915. During his years in Major League Baseball, he played for five different teams. Beginning his career with the Boston Americans, his final professional game was played with the New York Giants on June 6, 1915.

The murder of George E. Bailey occurred on October 8, 1900, at Breakheart Hill Farm in Saugus, Massachusetts. Bailey's employee, John C. Best, was subsequently convicted of the murder and executed.

Of the thousands of people murdered every year in the United States, several remain unidentified. Many of these individuals remain unidentified for years or even decades after their deaths. These cases include that of Tammy Jo Alexander, who was murdered in 1979 and remained an unidentified decedent until 2015, Reet Jurvetson, who was murdered in 1969 and whose body remained unidentified for 46 years, and Alisha Heinrich, a toddler thrown alive from the Interstate 10 bridge in 1982 and identified via genetic genealogy in 2020.

Victoria E. Snelgrove was an American journalism student at Emerson College in Boston, who died after being shot by officer Rochefort Milien of the Boston Police Department using a less-lethal weapon. The shooting took place following the victory of the Boston Red Sox over the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series. In 2005, the city of Boston reached a $5.1 million wrongful death settlement with Snelgrove's family. After filing a wrongful death suit for $10 million against FN Herstal, the family agreed to an out-of-court settlement in June of 2006. Although the original suit was for $10 million, the final amount of the settlement was not disclosed.

Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev was a Soviet-born terrorist who, with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, planted pressure cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. The bombings killed three people and reportedly injured as many as 264 others. Tsarnaev was of Chechen and Avar descent. He emigrated to the United States in 2004 at the age of 18. At the time of the bombings, Tsarnaev was an aspiring boxer.

Joseph Warren was an American physician who played a leading role in Patriot organizations in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution, eventually serving as President of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes on April 18, 1775, to leave Boston and spread the alarm that the British garrison in Boston was setting out to raid the town of Concord and arrest rebel leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Warren participated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord the following day, which are commonly considered to be the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War.