BOSTON—State Senator Jason Lewis joined the Massachusetts Legislature to pass a gun violence prevention and firearm safety reform bill that cracks down on the proliferation 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.
“Massachusetts is already a national leader in combating gun violence, but there is always more we can and must do to make our communities as safe as possible for all of our residents,” said State Senator Jason Lewis. “This legislation was carefully crafted to focus on policies that will further reduce gun violence, including suicides, while respecting the rights of lawful gun owners in the Commonwealth.”
Following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, the Massachusetts Legislature acted quickly to patch areas in the Commonwealth’s laws governing the issuance of licenses to carry firearms, which were undone by the Supreme Court’s actions. This more comprehensive legislation further updates the state’s firearms laws, after hearing extensive public testimony and following many months of discussions with stakeholders such as local police chiefs and other law enforcement groups, the Attorney General, gun violence prevention advocates and experts, and gun rights groups. The bill was endorsed by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association.
Major provisions of the legislation include:
- Stemming illegal firearm flow by providing 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.
- Protecting communities from gun violence by criminalizing the discharging of firearms at or near dwellings. It also prohibits the carrying of firearms on school buses, 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.
- Modernizing Massachusetts firearm laws to ensure 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, 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.
- Cracking down on ghost guns to tackle the rise in untraceable guns by requiring the registration and serialization of frames and receivers and updating our definition of a firearm to include unfinished frames and receivers. Between 2019 and 2021, the Boston Police Department alone saw a 280% increase in the number of untraceable ghost guns it recovered on the streets.
- Staying ahead of the curve to prepare for the future by creating 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 Secretary of Health and Human Services to seek federal reimbursement for violence prevention programs.
After passing both the House and Senate, An Act modernizing firearm laws was signed into law by Governor Maura Healey on July 25, 2024.
