House lawmakers have passed a sweeping new gun reform bill already unanimously opposed by Bay State police chiefs.
The House suspended their rules, passed the bill by a vote of 120-38, and will send it to the state Senate.
Lawmakers said they aim to reduce gun violence by strengthening laws around firearms licensing, and carrying and by going after so-called ghost guns.
“While the Commonwealth annually ranks as one of the safest states in the entire country from gun violence, the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision nullified existing components of our gun laws, threatening the safety of the Commonwealth’s residents. With the passage of this legislation, the House has once again displayed an unwavering commitment to ensuring that Massachusetts remains one of the safest states in the country,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said.
This summer, a year after the high court decided in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen that most extraordinary licensing requirements were at odds with the Second Amendment, Stoneham Rep. Michael Day filed the gun reform bill as HD.4420. The bill has since gone through two further iterations and was finally passed as H.4135.
Gun rights groups responded to the entire proposal with alarm, claiming that upon passage it would make felons of otherwise lawful gun owners and that it wouldn’t actually address criminal use of firearms. The House adjusted the bill in response to their complaints, but by and large not enough to convince Second Amendment advocates they weren’t being directly targeted.
“This bill simply cannot be fixed … or exorcised,” Jim Wallace, the Executive Director of the Gun Owners Action League, said in an email to his membership.
Licensed gun owners’ assertion the bill would only impact them, not those looking to break the law, was backed by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, representing all 351 cities and towns and more than 100 hospital police departments.
Executive Director Mark Leahy testified at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing that the organization had polled its membership, and received an “unprecedented” unanimous vote to oppose the bill.
“Although disappointed in this very predictable vote — in a proceeding where the House failed to follow their own rules — we applaud those Legislators who recognized that this bill makes no one safer. As we’ve said, the answer lies in the vigorous prosecution of criminals, who have no regard for gun laws, whether old or new. We look forward to addressing this matter with our Senate,” Leahy told the Herald after Wednesday’s vote.
The bill, according to the Speaker’s office, “cracks down on the sale of ghost guns; strengthens the Commonwealth’s red flag laws; updates the definition of assault weapons; and limits the carrying of guns into schools, polling places, government buildings and the private residences of others.”
The legislation would also outlaw the sale or purchase of rifles styled like Armalite‘s AR-15, the most popular shooting platform in the country. As the bill is currently worded, those who own potentially prohibited guns would be allowed to keep firearms already in their possession.
The House moved the measure through the Ways and Means committee after replacing the language in H.4090, which had been offered by Gov. Maura Healey as the state’s fiscal 2023 close-out budget, with the language of the gun bill.
