Massachusetts' new law known as Chapter 35 (aka "The Devil's Snare" and the "Lawful Citizens Imprisonment Act") has already caused mass confusion and chaos across the state, and that's before many of its most troublesome aspects have been enforced. The state's expanded definition of "firearm", for example, means hundreds, if not thousands, of models of long guns will have to be certified for sale by Massachusetts authorities or else be pulled from the shelves in just a couple of months (unless lawmakers decide to ignore their own language). And that, in turn, has led to a a huge spike in sales now. 

We first reported on the long lines at gun shops in late July, just a few days before the law official took effect, when Toby Leary from Cape Gun Works told Bearing Arms that he'd never seen a surge in demand like this before. Now the local media in Massachusetts is starting to take notice as well. 

WCVB in Boston reports that in the last half of July almost 12,000 guns were sold by dealers. That's a roughly 400% increase from the number of guns sold over the same period in both 2023 and 2022. State Rep. Michael Day, the Democrat who's the primary architect of the new gun law, laughably blames the spike on "interest groups that are kind of bent on spreading misinformation".

Day encouraged Massachusetts residents to reach out to the authorities directly if they have any questions about the new law.

"Check with your local law enforcement authorities, check with the attorney general's office, check with the public safety department, with the governor's office," he said. "Those are your reliable sources of information."

The problem is that those agencies aren't saying much at all, and have offered contradictory messages when they do offer up a comment. The Massachusetts State Police originally told firearm instructors that, as of August 1st, they'd have to comply with the new training standards for obtaining a License to Carry, even though the curriculum hasn't been written yet. It wasn't until a few days later that the state police rescinded that original guidance (and after a lawsuit challenging the new training mandates was filed) and told instructors to stick with the status quo until October 23rd. 

The same was true for the sale of "firearms", which until Chapter 35 were only defined as handguns. Now rifles and shotguns are also "firearms" under Massachusetts law, which requires every model to be independently tested (at a cost of $10,000) and certified by the state before they can be sold by FFLs. The state still hasn't announced how it will manage to certify all those models of rifles and shotguns before October 23rd. They're just kicking the can down the road. 

5 Investigates spoke with Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners' Action League, ahead of the lawsuit filing. Wallace doesn't like the state's new gun law, which strengthened what are already some of the strongest laws in the country. 

And, he said, his members are in the dark as to how to follow the new law.

"Literally everybody is asking us what this means," Wallace said. "The systems aren't in place and the interpretations aren't in place."

 That's not misinformation. It's a fact. Despite Day's assertion that gun owners can simply reach out to local licensing authorities or the AG's office for guidance, those agencies don't have any more information than GOAL does. The only real message that gun owners are getting now is "the changes are coming in October". What those changes will mean and how they'll impact the ability to purchase, possess, and carry a firearm, on the other hand, isn't something those agencies are eager or willing to discuss in detail.