Second Amendment advocates appear to have gathered more than enough signatures to put a repeal of Massachusetts' newest gun control law on the ballot in 2026, barring any shenanigans from the Massachusetts Secretary of State (which, sadly, cannot be completely discounted). Toby Leary, head of The Civil Rights Coalition, says gun owners have collected more than 90,000 signatures calling for a referendum on Chapter 135. 

If Gov. Maura Healey hadn't retroactively attached an emergency preamble to the bill two months after she originally signed it, the number of signatures gathered by volunteer activists would have triggered the law's suspension until a referendum is held two years from now. But thanks to Healey's undemocratic and almost unprecedented move, the law will likely remain in effect unless the courts step in and provide injunctive relief to the plaintiffs that have launched multiple legal challenges to various aspects of Chapter 135. 

"We've got a lot of work ahead of us. We've got legal action that will be coming, and we've got a long way to go. I believe this will be a two-year civics lesson for the people of Massachusetts when they see what their politicians have done," Leary said at a press conference outside the State House. "It's our turn to remind them you need to comply with your oath of office. Let's make the oath of office great again."

The referendum is one part of an effort to challenge the new law alongside at least two -- and possibly more to come -- lawsuits.

Leary slammed Healey's move last week to attach an emergency preamble to the law, which effectively guaranteed the measure will take effect right away and cannot be suspended until voters render their verdict on the 2026 repeal effort.

"This emergency preamble that was signed was done so in an effort to suppress a right that is enshrined in our Bill of Rights," he said. "That should never be allowed. It should never be able to stand."

While Healey's "emergency" preamble put the law into immediate effect, the grassroots efforts to raise awareness of the problems with Chapter 135 have forced Democrats to delay some of the law's provisions. The state legislature quietly pushed back the new training requirements for would-be gun owners for 18 months while the state police develop the new training curriculum, and the state police has informed FFLs in Massachusetts that they can continue to sell rifles and shotguns that are not on the state's approved firearm roster for the time being... with the exception of those guns deemed "assault weapons" under Chapter 135. 

Still, there are many aspects of Chapter 135 that are now in force, including changes to Massachusetts' licensing laws that have turned some lawful gun owners into paperwork criminals. Before Chapter 135 took effect, for instance, residents could own a semi-automatic long gun so long as they had a Firearms ID card. Now a License to Carry is required, which means those gun owners who possess a FID but not an LTC are now considered criminals by the state. 

Assuming the Secretary of State certifies at least 37,287 of the more than 90,000 signatures submitted by The Civil Rights Coalition, the repeal of Chapter 135 will be placed on the 2026 ballot, giving Second Amendment advocates two years to mount a public education campaign warning of the dangers to individual liberty and public safety that come attached to the new law. Since most Massachusetts voters aren't currently exercising their Second Amendment rights, that effort will have to engage non-gun owners, but the same army of grassroots volunteers can serve as Paul Reveres, alerting their fellow citizens to the hidden traps and unconstitutional edicts approved by lawmakers. 

We've also seen two lawsuits filed in federal court challenging various aspects of Chapter 135, and based on Leary's comment and discussions I've had with Second Amendment advocates in the state I expect we'll see more litigation in the future. That two-track effort offers multiple routes to undo Chapter 135, but given the hostility towards the right to keep and bear arms in the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the anti-2A attitudes of many Massachusetts voters, Second Amendment advocates in what was once the cradle of liberty have their work cut out for them as they try to overturn the state's intolerable acts of defiance to the Constitution and the Supreme Court.