Healey to immediately implement gun control law in face of opposition

Gov. Maura Healey is set to sign an emergency preamble Wednesday that would immediately put a gun control bill she signed in July into effect. 

The move would throw a wrench into the plans of opponents of the bill, who have been gathering tens of thousands of signatures in an effort to suspend and ultimately rescind the law. 

Rescinding the law entirely would have to be done through a ballot question that would go before voters in 2026. The Second Amendment advocates are pursuing that route, and have been hoping to collect enough signatures by an Oct. 9 deadline to temporarily suspend the law until voters could weigh in directly. Opponents to the bill, organized in a group called The Civil Rights Coalition, needed 37,287 by the deadline next week to place the issue on the ballot in 2026. They would have needed 49,716 signatures to suspend the law. The coalition has already gathered more than 65,000 signatures, The Boston Globe reported. 

But Healey’s decision to attach an emergency preamble to the law would make it take effect immediately. The governor’s decision was outlined in a release from The Civil Rights Coalition and confirmed by Healey’s office. 

“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 in a statement.

The coalition criticized Healey’s use of executive power, labeling it as an attack on the democratic process. 

“If this were truly a public health emergency, she would have enacted the preamble when the bill was signed back in July. Now that we are close to gathering the signatures needed to suspend the law for two years, she’s invoking an emergency preamble to sidestep the will of the people. She’s acting more like a dictator than a governor,” Toby Leary, the owner of a Cape Cod gun store and a leader of the group, said in a statement.  

The law, which was set to go into effect Oct. 23, was called the “state’s most significant gun safety legislation in a decade” by the Healey administration. It cracks down on ghost guns, or homemade firearms without serial numbers that cannot be traced.

It bolsters the state’s “red flag” laws, making sure that people who have had their firearms licenses revoked cannot obtain new licenses while an Extreme Risk Protective Order is in place against them. It also expands the pool of people and agencies that can seek such an order against people that could be a threat to themselves or others. The law expands the state’s definition of “assault weapons,” while prohibiting the possession, transfer, or sale of “assault-style” firearms. It criminalizes the possession of a gun in schools or polling places, as well. 

The coalition argues that the law unfairly targets nonviolent gun owners and small businesses. Leary argued that a reclassification of rifles and shotguns under the new law would prohibit their sale until a new roster is published. As that could take years, Leary said, a crucial revenue stream would be cut off from business owners. 

“As a store owner, I’m faced with two choices—break the law to stay open or stop selling guns and close my business. After a decade of hard work, my state government is trying to destroy my business’s future,” Leary said in a statement. 

Gun Owners’ Action League, the local state affiliate of the National Rifle Association, has already filed a lawsuit in federal court concerning the licensing and training sections of the legislation. Gun rights advocates are exploring the possibility of legally challenging the emergency preamble or pursuing a preliminary injunction that would prevent the law from going into effect, the Globe reported. 

The state’s Republican Party also condemned Healey’s move. 

“By invoking an emergency preamble to this flawed law targeting lawful firearm ownership, Governor Healey is deliberately subverting the democratic process and trampling on the people’s right to petition,” the MassGOP said in a statement.