Massachusetts gun owners have until October 28 to register firearms under the state's 2024 gun law, just six days before voters decide at the ballot box whether that same law should stay on the books at all. Question 9, appearing on the November 3 ballot, asks a simple yes-or-no question with sweeping consequences: keep Chapter 135 in place, or repeal it entirely.
A Law Already in Effect, Now Up for a Public Vote
Question 9 is what's known as a veto referendum, meaning it asks voters to decide whether to keep or repeal a law that's already in effect, rather than proposing new rules, according to CommonWealth Beacon. Gov. Maura Healey signed Chapter 135 into law on July 25, 2024, after lawmakers approved it that same month, as Boston.com reports. A yes vote keeps the law in place; a no vote repeals it. Gun-rights advocates gathered enough signatures to force the question onto this year's ballot, according to Axios.
Chapter 135 added new layers of gun control touching nearly every corner of firearms ownership in the state, per Axios reporting from Mike Deehan. Among the most consequential pieces: the law closed the so-called ghost-gun loophole by requiring serial numbers for privately made firearms, frames and receivers. The serialization requirement covers not only complete pistols, rifles and shotguns but also frames, receivers, and unfinished frames or receivers, according to attorneys at Serpa Law.
The October 28 Deadline Lands Right Before the Vote
That registration crunch arrives with unusual timing. Firearms already possessed before the state's new registration portal came online must be registered through that portal by October 28, the same legal analysis notes — placing the compliance deadline just six days ahead of Election Day. The pending referendum does not pause those obligations in the meantime: the same source states plainly that Chapter 135 remains in force before the vote regardless of what happens at the polls.
Beyond serialization, the law expanded who can trigger the state's red-flag system. School administrators and licensed health care providers were added to the list of parties who can petition courts to issue Extreme Risk Protection Orders, allowing them to seek removal of guns from people believed to be dangerous, per Boston.com's reporting. The law also broadened its definition of assault-style firearms and now requires anyone with a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun, or any firearm capable of holding large-capacity feeding devices, to obtain a License to Carry — a license restricted to those 21 and older, according to the same Boston.com account.
New Restrictions on Where Guns Can Go
Chapter 135 also limits where firearms can be carried, prohibiting them in government buildings, polling locations and schools, with certain exceptions, Boston.com reports. Separately, Massachusetts General Law already bars possessing a firearm at locations used for ballot storage or tabulation during voting, at polling places or early-voting sites while open, and within 150 feet of their entrances, according to the Massachusetts General Laws.
The law further mandated new material for firearm safety courses, including live-fire training along with instruction on safe storage and suicide prevention, according to WBUR. Training topics required under the law include suicide prevention, use-of-force law and conflict avoidance, per Axios.
Supporters and Opponents Make Their Case
Supporters say the law updates rules for newer firearms technology and strengthens tools meant to prevent suicide, Axios reports. Democratic state legislators, Healey and gun-violence-prevention advocates are defending the law, according to CommonWealth Beacon. Opponents, meanwhile, cite constitutional concerns along with compliance and training costs and burdens they say fall on local police, per Axios. The repeal push is backed by firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson and gun-rights advocates, CommonWealth Beacon reports.
New Bedford Police Chief Jason Thody pointed to a comparison from Connecticut, where he said a policy imposing stricter release conditions on certain repeat firearm offenders was, in his words, “very effective,” according to the New Bedford Light.
What Polling Shows and What Repeal Would and Wouldn't Do
A September poll from the MassINC Polling Group found 70% of respondents would vote to keep the law, 18% would repeal it, and just 11% remained undecided — the lowest undecided share among the nine questions on this year's ballot, according to CommonWealth Beacon. The survey of 800 likely voters was conducted online from September 14 through 22. Notably, guns and marijuana were the only ballot questions respondents cited as reasons to get out and vote at all, the same report found.
Even if voters repeal Chapter 135, that would not erase the bulk of Massachusetts' existing strict gun rules, including licensing, safety training and the state's earlier assault weapons ban, per Axios. The state's gun-death rate stood at 4.02 per 100,000 residents in 2024, compared with a national average of 12.8, according to CommonWealth Beacon. More than 280 deaths in Massachusetts were attributed to gun violence that year, the majority from suicide, WBUR reports. After the law passed, Massachusetts jumped from the fifth-strongest to the second-strongest gun laws in the nation in Everytown's rankings, according to the same WBUR account.
