Beacon Hill Democrats reached a deal on a gun reform invoice Wednesday that may ban folks underneath the age of 21 from proudly owning semiautomatic rifles or shotguns and rein in using untraceable “ghost guns” which have grow to be widespread lately.
Lawmakers picked up a key doc round 12:30 p.m. that’s essential to file an accord and high negotiators stated they plan to take closing votes on the proposal this week after months of backroom talks that have been closed to the general public.
“Largely, the goal here was to make sure that Massachusetts was safer, that residents were safer, that gun owners were safer, that the general public is safer. We’ve got the lowest incidence of gun violence in the country. That’s going to be even lower as our intent and our goal with this law,” Rep. Michael Day, a Stoneham Democrat who co-chairs the Judiciary Committee, informed reporters.
Day and Sen. Cindy Creem, a Newton Democrat who additionally heads up the Judiciary Committee, stated the Home and Senate plan to take closing votes on the proposal this week in an try to ship it to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk earlier than the weekend.
Although the invoice bars these underneath 21 from proudly owning semiautomatic rifles or shotguns, younger folks between the ages of 18 and 21 might nonetheless personal and possess firearms with a firearm identification card.
Below present state regulation, an 18-year-old can get hold of a firearms identification card, which permits them to buy a semiautomatic rifle, in response to an aide to Creem. The change proposed within the invoice would require folks to have a license to hold to buy a semiautomatic rifle, which will be obtained as soon as an individual turns 21, the aide stated.
These underneath 18 might nonetheless use firearms underneath the direct supervision of a licensed grownup for searching, instruction, recreation, and participation in capturing sports activities, in response to a abstract of the invoice shared forward of its submitting.
Lawmakers additionally proposed barring folks from carrying firearms in authorities buildings, polling locations, and faculties. Municipalities would have the power to opt-out their native buildings.
The invoice updates the definition of an assault-style firearm in state regulation to incorporate fashionable firearms and traits that aren’t coated by the state’s present ban.
Democratic leaders in each chambers agreed to permit the continued possession, possession, switch, and sale of assault-style firearms which are legally owned and registered within the state. The invoice restricts the switch of “legacy” large-capacity feeding gadgets, in response to the abstract.
The proposal additionally tackles so-called “ghost guns” by requiring the serialization of all firearms, together with these which are do-it-yourself, and creates penalties for the “possession, creation, and transfer” of all untraceable weapons. Weapons made earlier than 1968 are exempt from the coverage.
Democrats pitched banning the sale of 3-D printers particularly marketed as able to making firearms.
However at the least one Republican who was appointed to the personal negotiating group stated he wouldn’t assist the ultimate deal. Rep. Joe McKenna, a Sutton Republican, stated the invoice represents a “solution in search of a problem.”
“I do appreciate that the (final) version is perhaps more conservative than either the House or the Senate original versions. But at the end of the day, I think that it simply will be a signal to those law-abiding Second Amendment gun owners that they have another hoop to jump through that they’ve been jumping through for decades to remain law-abiding citizens,” McKenna informed the Herald outdoors the Home Chamber. “It’s going to create a burden and a significant cost to local and state law enforcement and to licensing authorities.”
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