In 2024, Massachusetts Gov. Martha Healey took a controversial action to implement a new gun control law. Everything about it was controversial, including the way Healey made it go into effect immediately.
There has been a ballot initiative to have people vote on it in 2026 and multiple lawsuits. Now, one lawmaker is trying something a bit more direct.
That's right. He's introducing legislation to overturn all of those measures.
A Republican state senator backed by a coalition of gun rights advocates plans to file a suite of bills this month that attempt to repeal a major firearms law Gov. Maura Healey approved last year.
Sen. Peter Durant of Spencer said he is preparing six different pieces of legislation that target a gun law top Beacon Hill Democrats have hailed as a key measure to save lives, create safer communities, and maintain responsible ownership of firearms but critics argue impede fundamental Second Amendment rights.
Durant said one bill will call for a full repeal of the law while the rest will take aim at sections of the statute covering gun registrations, a ban on automatic rifles and shotguns, live fire training requirements, a nonresident ban on semiautomatic magazines, and a “pre-ban” on magazines.
The Spencer Republican said the gun law approved last summer “unjustly infringed upon” Second Amendment rights and undermined “the freedoms of law-abiding citizens.”
“First and foremost, we’re calling for a full repeal of this restrictive law. This is the ideal solution, a return to the freedoms that have been unjustly taken away. While we recognize that this will be an uphill battle, it is a fight worth pursuing,” Durant said outside the State House Thursday afternoon.
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Healey defended the statute last year, arguing that “strong gun laws save lives.”
“This law is the state’s most significant gun safety legislation in a decade. It will make Massachusetts safer as soon as it goes into effect, including by keeping assault-style weapons that are a danger to our communities off our streets, and by keeping guns out of government buildings and courts,” she said in a letter to Secretary of State William Galvin.
Healey may honestly believe that "strong gun laws save lives," but that's part of why such heavily biased research is a massive problem. It provides cover for people like the governor.
However, what she doesn't bother to tell anyone is that criminals will still get standard capacity magazines, still get semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and won't take part in any live fire training requirements.
These laws need to be repealed.
Unfortunately, much as I'd love to see Durant's measures pass and become law, let's calculate the odds of this happening. First, there's been no appreciable increase in pro-gun lawmakers in the Massachusetts legislature since the law was passed last year. That means you'd need a majority consisting of people who actually passed the law this bill tries to repeal.
That's not remotely likely to happen.
Yet even if it did, it has to cross Healey's desks for her signature, which is never going to happen, either. Sure, a veto can be overridden, but if this were to pass in the legislature, it's not going to be by any veto-proof majority. At best, it would squeak by.
That means this is a nice effort, but it's ultimately going to accomplish nothing at all.
Frankly, I don't think the ballot initiative will do much, either. I respect the effort and they did get 90,000 signatures, which is impressive of that particular state, but I'd be shocked to find out that most people in the state favor gun rights, even if they don't vote for pro-gun politicians. I could be wrong, though, which would be nice.
Still, I think the courts are the best bet, especially after Bruen.
That's on the table, too, thankfully, and hopefully none of the rest will be necessary by the time these laws are ripped to shreds on constitutional grounds.
