(BOSTON 7/22/2024) — The Massachusetts Legislature last week passed a firearm safety reform bill that cracks down on the sale of ghost guns, strengthens the Commonwealth’s red flag laws, updates the definition of assault-style firearms, and limits the carrying of guns into polling places and government buildings while updating our current prohibition of guns in schools to include school transport.
“Massachusetts has a long legacy of common-sense gun safety laws – laws that have resulted in the Commonwealth having one of the lowest gun death rates in the nation,” said Senator Michael Moore (D-Millbury). “I’m pleased that the Legislature is acting to update these regulations and react to the rapidly changing modern landscape of firearm availability, modifiable accessories, and technological advancements. This legislation will help make sure we can protect our communities from gun violence without infringing the right to bear arms for law-abiding gun owners.”
Following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, the Massachusetts Legislature acted quickly to patch areas in the Commonwealth’s framework governing the issuance of licenses to carry firearms, which were undone by the Supreme Court’s actions. The bill passed last week is a result of a comprehensive review of the Commonwealth’s gun laws, with the goal of proposing solutions to emerging threats in technology, such as the prevalence of ghost guns.
During debate, Senator Moore secured an amendment that aligns the definition of a ‘silencer’ with the federal definition, broadening Massachusetts’ silencer ban to include devices that are sold for the sole purpose of being easily modified into firearm silencers. These devices are often marketed as things such as fuel filters and solvent traps. This amendment was passed with the support of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.
Other major provisions of the bill include:
Stemming Illegal Firearm Flow. This bill provides tools for law enforcement to target illegal gun trafficking by including an enhanced tracing system to track firearms used in crimes, modernizing the existing firearm registration system, and increasing the availability of firearm data for academic and policy use. The bill also enhances requirements for reporting lost, stolen and surrendered firearms.
Protecting Communities from Gun Violence. The legislation criminalizes discharging firearms at or near dwellings. It also prohibits the carrying of firearms on school busses, polling places, and government buildings with an exemption for law enforcement.
Additionally, the bill standardizes training requirements for individuals seeking a license to carry and will now require live firearm training. The bill also expands the list of who may petition a court for an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) against a person who poses a risk of causing bodily injury to themselves or others beyond just household members and law enforcement, to include school administrators and medical professionals. It creates a special legislative commission to study and make recommendations to improve the Commonwealth’s funding structure for violence prevention services and begins the process of directing the Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services to seek federal reimbursement for violence prevention programs.
Modernizing Massachusetts Firearm Laws. The bill ensures that Massachusetts laws remain in compliance with the Bruen decision and provides standardization to our laws and the process of obtaining a license to carry a firearm for responsible individuals. The legislation also updates how we define assault-style firearms and places new restrictions on large capacity feeding devices that are currently owned. It closes loopholes that allow the modification of legal firearms into illegal automatic weapons and provides a legacy clause so all firearms legally owned and registered in Massachusetts as of the effective date of the bill will continue to be legal and may be bought and sold within the state.
Between 2019 to 2021, the Boston Police Department alone saw a 280 percent increase in the number of untraceable ghost guns it recovered on the streets. The bill passed last week tackles this rise in untraceable guns by requiring the registration and serialization of frames and receivers and updates our definition of firearm to include unfinished frames and receivers.
Having passed both chambers, An Act modernizing firearm laws now goes to the Governor’s desk for her signature.
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