Massachusetts Senate approves gun bill aimed at ghost guns and assault weapons
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday approved a sweeping gun bill aimed at cracking down on “ghost guns,” tightening the state’s ban on assault weapons and outlaw devices that convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns.
The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 37 to 3. The measure is part of a state effort to respond to a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that citizens have the right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.
Supporters of the legislation say it would make residents safer and ultimately save lives by reforming the state’s firearms regulations.
“The Senate came together and acted on gun violence, transcending divisions on this critical issue, in the name of protecting our residents from gun crime, modernizing our laws, and supporting communities torn apart by unnecessary violence,” said the chairman of the Democratic Senate. Karen Spilka said in a statement.
On ghost guns, the bill would increase scrutiny of those who own privately made, non-serialized firearms that are largely untraceable. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that 25,785 ghost guns were recovered in domestic seizures.
The Senate bill would make it illegal to possess devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns, including Glock switches and trigger activators. It would also ensure that gun dealers are inspected annually and that Massachusetts State Police can conduct the inspections if a local licensing agency is unable or unwilling to do so.
Other elements of the bill would ban the carrying of firearms in government administrative buildings; require courts to compel the surrender of firearms of persons subject to anti-harassment protection orders and who pose an imminent threat; prohibit the marketing of illegal firearms sales to minors; and filing a criminal charge for intentionally discharging a gun into a dwelling.
In October, the Massachusetts House passed its own gun bill, aimed at tightening gun laws and cracking down on ghost guns.
Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League, said he had hoped lawmakers would have held a separate public hearing on the Senate version of the bill because of the significant differences from the House version.
“There’s a lot of new stuff, industry stuff, machine gun stuff, definitions that are weird, so that’s why the (Senate) bill should have gone to a separate hearing,” he said. “The Senate is moving theirs pretty quickly and we keep asking, what’s the rush?”
The group Stop Handgun Violence praised the Senate.
The bill “dramatically improves current gun safety laws in Massachusetts by closing dangerous loopholes and making it more difficult for legally prohibited gun purchasers to access firearms without detection by law enforcement,” said Stop Handgun Violence founder John Rosenthal in a statement.