More than eight weeks after initially signing H. 4885 into law, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is preparing to attach an emergency preamble to the gun control bill in response to a grassroots effort to repeal the new restrictions via a voter referendum. While Healey's move won't scuttle the referendum effort completely, the belated "emergency" means that the law won't be suspended until voters have a chance to weigh in. Instead, it most of the provisions contained within the sweeping gun bill will take effect on Wednesday. 

The Massachusetts legislature quietly delayed the implementation of a new training mandate for gun owners in late September, so that portion of H. 4885/Chapter 135 will remain on hold for another 18 months. But the other components of the new law are supposed to be enforced once Healey signs the emergency preamble, which could, among other things, have an immediate impact on the firearms available for sale throughout the state. 

One of the provisions of the state's newest gun law is a change to the definition of "firearm", which previously only included handguns. Under Chapter 135, rifles and shotguns are also considered "firearms" by the state, which means that before they can be sold they must be independently tested and certified for sale by the Massachusetts State Police or placed on the roster by the Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The vast majority of the guns on the state's firearm roster are handguns, which means that as of Wednesday it will be illegal for retailers to continue to offer uncertified rifles and shotguns for sale, even those that are currently in their inventory.

When the legislature snuck in an amendment to a budget bill that suspends the new training mandates for those seeking a License to Carry or a Firearms ID card, they also delayed the training for firearm retailers and law enforcement on all of their new obligations under Chapter 135. But once Healey signs the emergency preamble, those new requirements kick in immediately. Toby Leary, who owns Cape Gun Works in Hyannis, says the governor's tantrum is going to come with real-world consequences for hundreds of FFLs and almost every gun owner in the state.  

Toby Leary, owner of Cape Cod Gun Works and chairman of the Civil Rights Coalition, said Healey was set to demonstrate “pure tyranny at its finest” and threatened to put 400 gun stores out of business with her signature.

“She … is literally interfering with the democratic process that is unfolding, a constitutional process that is unfolding. She had two months to do this before,” Leary told the Herald Tuesday morning. “If it was such an immediate need and a dire threat to this state, why did they wait until they knew that we were going to be successful in our campaign? This is only an effort to silence the voices of the 85,000 people that will be involved in this campaign.”

In a statement to the Herald, a spokesperson for Healey said the governor plans to sign the emergency language on Wednesday, which will put the law into effect immediately rather than on Oct. 23 and “ensure that law’s operation cannot be suspended by the referendum petition.”

“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. It is important that these measures go into effect without delay,” Healey said.

Gun rights groups can still collect just over 37,000 signatures to place a question before voters in 2026 asking them to repeal the gun law.

Leary said his coalition — which also includes the local affiliate of the National Rifle Association, other gun stores, and sportsmen clubs — already cleared that threshold. But he said organizers were still weighing whether to challenge Healey’s emergency declaration in court.

“We might just seek a preliminary injunction because this law is so unconstitutional,” he said. “It’s not going to be hard to show how people will be irreparably harmed, and we might seek a preliminary injunction for those reasons.”

Now, it's entirely possible that Healey and other government officials will try to ignore the most problematic implications of the emergency preamble or go back and amend Chapter 135 to add further delays to implementation in an attempt to stave off further litigation. There's no guarantee that will happen, but they've done it once already, so they could conceivably do it again. 

Honestly, there are so many new mandates and restrictions within Chapter 135 it's hard to know exactly what will change once Healey signs her emergency preamble and the law takes immediate effect. Under the letter of the law most of Chapter 135's provisions will be enforceable after the emergency preamble is attached, but Healey and the Democrats in the legislature also have a vested interest in ensuring that the preamble doesn't result in Chapter 135 doing immediate and irreparable injury to gun owners and retailers, which would help Second Amendment advocates if they seek an injunction in the days ahead.  

You can check out the Gun Owners Action League's FAQs on various components of Chapter 135 here, and I've asked GOAL executive director Jim Wallace to join me on Wednesday's Bearing Arms Cam & Co to discuss "The Devil's Snare" in more detail as well. 

The only "emergency" around the state's gun laws is that Second Amendment advocates were about to cause Chapter 135 to be suspended fr a couple of years. Healey's preamble may have taken that off the table, but in doing so she's creating a constitutional crisis that will have far-reaching impacts on Massachusetts gun owners, gun sellers, and those charged with enforcing the many edicts in Chapter 135 that will soon officially be in effect.