On July 25, 2024, Governor Healey signed “an Act Modernizing Firearm Laws” (“Chapter 135” or the “Act”), a new comprehensive gun law that makes several key changes to existing Massachusetts’ gun laws, including banning “ghost guns.” Ghost guns are unserialized (and therefore untraceable) firearms assembled by components purchased either as a kit or as separate pieces created using 3D printing. The law imposes penalties on possessing, creating and transferring these types of guns and requires almost all firearms to have serial numbers. It also makes several other changes to gun laws, including licensing laws, the definition of “machine gun” to include bump stocks, trigger cranks, Glock switches and auto sears, and creates an “Extreme Risk Protective Order” which requires a person to surrender their firearms and license. The law was initially scheduled to go into effect on October 23, 2024, 90 days after it was signed into law.
Shortly thereafter, pro-gun lobbying group Gun Owners’ Action League (“GOAL”), the Massachusetts affiliate of the NRA, announced they would be pursuing a referendum petition to repeal the newly enacted law.
A referendum petition allows citizens to submit laws recently enacted by the legislature to the people for either ratification or rejection. Amendment Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution governs the referendum process. To start a referendum petition, 10 Massachusetts voters must sign and submit the referendum petition to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office within 30 days of the signing of the law. Petitioners have until 90 days after the challenged law is signed to gather certified signatures. If the signatures supporting the referendum petition total more than 2% of the votes cast in the previous governor’s election, petitioners may request the law be suspended until the referendum is voted on. If the number of certified signatures totals 1.5-2% of the prior vote total, the referendum is placed on the next available ballot without suspending the law. The petition fails if the petitioners do not collect signatures totaling at least 1.5% of the prior vote. Notably, however, if the challenged law includes an emergency preamble, then the law cannot be suspended, no matter how many signatures are collected.
On August 12, 2024, GOAL’s special campaign committee, named “The Civil Rights Coalition,” filed a referendum petition to appear on the 2026 ballot with the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office.
Around that time, GOAL indicated to the press that they were pursuing enough signatures to suspend Chapter 135’s implementation until the referendum could be voted on in November 2026. To achieve this, GOAL needed to submit 49,716 certified signatures to the Secretary of the Commonwealth by October 23, 2024. In early October 2024, GOAL indicated that they believed they had collected nearly 90,000 (yet to be certified) signatures, far more than enough signatures (if certified) to meet the 49,716-signature threshold to suspend Chapter 135.
However, on October 2, 2024, prior to the petitioner’s initial deadline to file signatures with local election officials for certification, Governor Healey exercised her executive authority to add an emergency preamble to the Act, implementing the law immediately and effectively blocking any attempt by GOAL to suspend it prior to a ballot question in 2026.
Although the Governor has the constitutional authority to add emergency measures to laws after they are signed, supporters of the referendum are questioning the legality of Governor Healey’s emergency preamble, stating it was motivated not by any emergency in the Commonwealth but rather by her desire not to see the law suspended once it became clear the referendum would gather enough signatures. While no legal challenge to the emergency preamble has been filed yet, the Civil Rights Coalition’s website indicates it is “working on [a] legal challenge to [governor] Healey’s emergency preamble.” Pro-gun groups have also challenged other provisions of the law in federal court, alleging that the law is an unconstitutional restriction on citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
Despite its inability to suspend Chapter 135, GOAL has indicated that they are likely to continue efforts to place the referendum petition on the 2026 ballot.