The right to keep and bear arms – whether for sport, for self-defense, or for hunting – is enshrined into our nation’s founding documents, forming a cornerstone of this grand American experiment. With devices that can take a life in an instant, we as a Commonwealth have an immense responsibility to ensure our communities remain safe and that firearms stay out of the hands of criminals. Here in Massachusetts, we have an incredible track record of doing just that – the Bay State consistently has one of the lowest gun death rates in the nation. But with changing times and ever-evolving technologies, we must occasionally update our laws to protect our communities while preserving the ability of law-abiding gun owners to exercise their second amendment rights.
On February 1st, the Massachusetts Senate passed An Act to sensibly address firearm violence through effective reform – the SAFER Act – with bipartisan support. While there has been a lot said about this legislation, I want to be clear: this bill is a win for both gun owners and firearm safety advocates across the Commonwealth. My colleagues and I in the Senate made a concerted effort to reframe the misguided House firearm bill, and focus efforts toward cracking down on black market “ghost guns,” protecting law enforcement, and updating legal definitions to reflect the evolving world of dangerous modification technologies – without creating additional burdens for law-abiding Bay Staters exercising their right to bear arms. These are the kinds of policies that will make a material difference in our ongoing quest to eliminate gun deaths in the Commonwealth.
Key parts of the bill include provisions cracking down on unserialized “ghost guns,” banning firearm modification devices that can make standard guns more dangerous, improving data reporting to allow law enforcement agencies to better understand where crime-involved firearms are originating from, strengthening our red flag laws, and proactively preventing gun violence at the community-level. These are important, reasonable policy changes that I believe will make our streets and neighborhoods safer without punitively punishing legal gun owners like the House bill would have.
To that end, during the Senate debate process, I collaborated with other Senators to ensure our bill included a provision that protects gun owners who possess affected weapons purchased before the former Attorney General’s enforcement order was announced in 2016. I also won support for an amendment that creates a commission to study how a potential new live-fire licensing requirement would function in the real world, spotlighting the need for adequate resources, range time, and financial reimbursements. I’m pleased to share that this bill also includes an amendment that requires individuals who have been charged with a crime be detained until trial if they are released and commit another gun related or violent offense. Amendments like these will further protect gun owners who have done everything right.
I want to recognize that the process of becoming a gun owner in Massachusetts already comes with a number of hoops to jump through – it is not my intention to create more burdens and requirements that stretch gun ownership further out of reach. But we must also recognize that the reasonable, common-sense firearm regulations in the Commonwealth save lives each and every day; the Senate’s work is simply a continuation of that effort. While I will always work to protect the second amendment from ill-advised legislation like the House’s gun control bill, giving our law enforcement more tools to prevent gun crimes and making it harder for criminals to get and modify firearms is a worthy cause that everyone – whether you own a gun or not – should support. I am proud that the bill passed by the Senate has won the support of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association in addition to a number of District Attorneys from across this great state.
While this bill has a long way to go until it is signed into law, my commitment to the residents of Central Massachusetts has not changed. Reasonable steps to protect our communities are possible without infringing on second amendment rights, and I will continue to work on the Second Worcester District’s behalf to ensure these two needs remain in balance. Because although second amendment advocates and gun safety advocates disagree on how we get there, we all share one common goal – safe, secure communities for all.