Massachusetts has long been synonymous with "bad gun policy" in many people's books. It's not for anti-gunners, for obvious reasons, but it's always been among the most anti-gun states in the nation.
And recent legislation just made it worse. This time, though, pro-gun forces in the state aren't just rolling over.
In fact, they're taking their fight to the people of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts gun rights advocates are pushing to overturn a 2024 update of the state’s already tough firearms law, collecting more than 90,000 signatures to place a repeal referendum on the 2026 ballot. Their efforts face opposition from mental health professionals and legal experts who argue the law’s regulations are necessary for public safety.
The 2024 law bans ghost guns and some firearm components, mandates live-fire training for gun license applicants, expands red flag laws to allow health care professionals to petition for firearm removal if they believe they pose an imminent threat to life, and imposes new limits on where firearms can be carried in public.
Massachusetts is regarded as having some of the strictest gun laws in the country. The new law’s foes argue it wrongly targets law-abiding gun owners, eroding their constitutional rights without addressing real issues of crime and illegal firearm use.
“They’ve had no effect at reducing crime at all,” says Jim Wallace, executive director of Gun Owners Action League. “We proved that a number of years ago using the state’s own data system. But the Legislature didn’t care.”
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Experts maintain that one of the major reasons for Massachusetts’ low gun violence rates is its strict laws. According to Everytown Research & Policy, Massachusetts ranked second in the nation for gun law strength and third-lowest in gun violence rates as of 2025.
Everytown isn't a source of actual experts. They're a gun control organization that produces gun control propaganda that is meant to look like actual research. People always ignore what the organization stands for, which means they fail to account for bias in any so-called research.
Especially when it comes to gun laws and violent crime rates, which go beyond a simple correlation.
Regardless, the fact that pro-Second Amendment organizations are fighting back and doing so this way is important, especially in Massachusetts. And, to be honest, I think their chances area lot better than it might appear in a surface-level examination.
First, the midterm elections are usually not the ones that have the greatest turnout. People aren't as worried about them as they are about presidential elections. The incumbents usually win and most people aren't losing a lot of sleep over it unless they just despise the incumbent.
But gun rights supporters are much more motivated to come out and defeat gun control.
Sure, a lot of people in the state probably like the law, but do they like it enough to turn out when they wouldn't otherwise? Probably not. What we've seen time and time again is that while people might respond in polls that they support gun control, that doesn't turn up in their voting. That's because the issue isn't a high priority for them.
If that holds in Massachusetts, well, then there's actually a much better chance that the law will get overturned than one might otherwise think.
What we don't know right now is just how good those odds really are.
Still, even if it fails, I respect the fight. There's something wrong with just shrugging and moving on after someone tramples on your rights. Instead, you should fight back, and that's what folks in Massachusetts are doing.
However, I sincerely hope they win this. It would be a massive victory just because of where it happened and would likely blindside anti-gun groups who don't really expect anything like this out of a gun control stronghold like Massachusetts.
Which would just make it all the more glorious.
