A raft of new gun laws introduced to the Massachusetts Legislature on Monday in response to last year’s Supreme Court decision overturning some of the state’s strictest firearms licensing laws was met with swift condemnation by rights advocates.
A year after the high court decided in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen that most extraordinary licensing requirements were at odds with the Second Amendment, Judiciary Committee Co-chair Rep. Michael Day filed H.4420, or An Act modernizing firearms laws to the House, a more than 100-page bill which would ban the carrying of firearms in most public places without express permission and aims to fight the rise of so-called ghost guns.
Gun rights advocates were swift to react with alarm.
“The proposed legislation is an abhorrent anti-civil rights effort. No community in Massachusetts faces this kind an intentional bigotry and oppression from the State Government! It is simply a post Bruen tantrum, very similar to Governor Wallace after Brown v. Board of Education,” Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League, told the Hearld.
The law, according to a release from Day’s office, would establish an “enhanced tracing system” to track guns used during the commission of a crime, “modernize” the firearms registrations system and make firearms data available to academics and policymakers.
The bill would also create “specific crimes that will prohibit discharging firearms at or near dwellings and carrying firearms while intoxicated” and “standardizes training requirements for individuals
seeking a license to carry and will now require live firearm training.”
“One of the most important duties we have as lawmakers is to ensure the health and safety of our residents, and neither a rogue Supreme Court nor increasingly sophisticated criminal activity will stop this Legislature from meeting those duties,” Day said in a statement Monday.
“Massachusetts has the lowest rate of gun-related deaths in the continental United States because our firearm laws work. This proposal will modernize our laws to continue to promote and encourage responsible gun ownership and will provide our communities with the tools they need to combat gun violence in our streets,” he continued.
The need for change comes despite the fact Massachusetts already has strict gun laws, according to House Speaker Ron Mariano.
“While the Commonwealth’s gun laws are among the best in the nation, unrelenting acts of violence and the Supreme Court’s deleterious Bruen decision demand legislative action both here in Massachusetts and on the Federal level,” he said in a statement. “It is my hope that the work we do here will not only make Massachusetts a safer place to live, but will serve as a national model for Congress and other states.”
The bill was referred to the Judiciary committee where it will likely receive a hearing at a future date.