The Massachusetts House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a sweeping gun bill aimed at tightening firearms laws, cracking down on unregistered “ghost guns” and strengthening the state’s assault weapons ban.
The bill, which passed 120-38, would also prohibit individuals from carrying a gun into someone’s home without their permission and require key gun components to be serialised and registered with the state.
The 125-page bill – a priority of Democratic Massachusetts House Speaker Ronald Mariano – is in part a response to a 2022 US Supreme Court ruling that US citizens have the right to carry firearms in public for self-defence.
The proposal would create new laws banning the discharge of firearms in or near homes and prohibiting the carrying of firearms while intoxicated. It would also ban guns in schools, polling places and government buildings.
The bill expands the state’s assault weapons ban by banning new purchases of AR-15 style weapons. It would also prohibit someone from converting a legal firearm into an illegal automatic weapon.
The proposal includes an improved system for tracking firearms used in crimes to help stem the flow of illegal guns into the state. It would also modernise the existing firearms registration system while increasing the availability of firearms data for academic and policy use, the lawmakers said.
Massachusetts, which already has tough gun laws, had the lowest rate of gun deaths in the country at 3.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, compared with Mississippi, which had the highest rate at 33.9 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the most recent statistics listed on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
The state Senate has yet to release its version of a gun bill. It will be up to the two Democratic-led chambers to hammer out a single bill to send to Democratic Governor Maura Healey’s desk for her signature before it can become law.
Gun owners opposed to the bill say the measures outlined in the legislation do more to target gun owners than to reduce crime.
“It’s all against us, the law-abiding people. There’s nothing in there that goes after the criminals,” said Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League.
Wallace also said the bill was an overreaction to last year’s Supreme Court ruling.
“This is a temper tantrum. This is a complete temper tantrum,” he said.
Supporters of the bill say it will help plug holes in the state’s gun laws while responding to the Supreme Court ruling.
One response is a measure in the bill that would ban guns in secure spaces such as schools, polling places and the Statehouse, said Jennifer Robinson of the Massachusetts chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Robinson said the bill also included what she called common-sense steps.
“We believe that if you’re going to have a licence for a gun, you should have live fire training, just like if you’re going to drive a car, we don’t just throw you the keys and walk away,” she said. She also pointed to a section of the bill that would give the state police responsibility for inspecting gun dealers.