Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey put a sweeping gun law into effect immediately on Wednesday.
Gun violence remains prevalent across the U.S. with nearly 13,000 gun-related deaths and over 24,500 gun-related injuries recorded in 2024 so far, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence in the U.S. In Massachusetts, 257 people die and 648 more are injured by guns in an average year, according to Everytown, a U.S. nonprofit that advocates for gun control. Everytown says that Massachusetts has the 2nd-lowest rate of gun violence in the country.
The new law, which was approved in July and was supposed to be implemented later this month, cracks down on privately made, unserialized firearms called “ghost guns” and criminalizes the possession of bump stocks and trigger cranks, which increase the firing rate of guns.
Besides regulating firearms, the legislation places more responsibility on gun owners by requiring applicants for a gun license to complete live-fire training and it also expands the state’s so-called “red flag” law to allow police as well as health care and school officials to alert courts if they believe someone with access to guns poses a risk. The courts can then determine whether to, at least temporarily, take away the guns.
“This gun safety law bans ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme Risk Protection Order statute to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others, and invests in violence prevention programs,” Healey said in a statement. “It is important that these measures go into effect without delay.”
Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
Meanwhile, gun rights advocates have called the law a “historic attack on our civil rights” and have said it puts unnecessary barriers on law-abiding residents wanting to own a gun.
Activists who opposed the measure hoped to suspend the law before it took effect by gathering signatures from registered voters. They needed at least 49,716 signatures to prevent the law from being implemented. The goal was to stop the law until voters could decide on a potential referendum during the 2026 election to repeal it.
Gun rights advocates also filed a federal lawsuit against the law, alleging that it is unconstitutional and calling it “onerous firearms legislation that imposes sweeping arms bans, magazine restrictions, registration requirements, and licensing preconditions that are as burdensome as they are ahistorical.”
The measure was passed in part as a response to the Supreme Court‘s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, which stated that citizens have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.
The gun rights activists’ suit, which cites the Bruen decision, asks for a temporary halt on the enforcement of the “burdensome licensing regimes on the possession and carry of firearms for self defense.”
Under the new law, people who aren’t in law enforcement cannot carry guns at schools, polling locations and government buildings.
The law also requires people applying for a gun license to carry firearms to demonstrate a basic understanding of safety principles, provides local licensing authorities with relevant mental health information, and allows district attorneys to prosecute people who shoot at or near homes, which seeks to make sure people under restraining orders no longer have access to guns.
Additionally, the definition of “assault weapons” has been updated in the new law to include known assault weapons and other weapons that function like them, and the possession, transfer or sale of assault-style firearms or large-capacity feeding devices are prohibited under the law.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
