NSSF Rebukes Massachusetts Legislation Denigrating Second Amendment Rights to State Privilege

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF^®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, rebukes legislation proposed by Massachusetts House and Senate lawmakers that would denigrate the Second Amendment to a state-granted privilege and do nothing to hold criminals accountable for the criminal misuse of firearms.

State lawmakers negotiated a compromise through a closed-door conference committee and no input from the firearm industry, releasing the bill with just two weeks left in the session. However, this bill is anything but a compromise. It runs roughshod over the fundamental rights to keep and bear arms by creating unconstitutional age-based gun bans, magazine bans and subjects lawful firearm owners to onerous licensing requirements and searchable databases that compromise privacy.

“After nearly a year, in the state where the American Revolution began, Massachusetts legislators are seeking to rush through a 111-page bill that will do nothing to stem violence in the Commonwealth and will only create a bloated bureaucratic mess that impacts law-abiding gun-owners,” said Jake McGuigan, NSSF’s Government Relations – State Affairs Managing Director. “The legislature had the opportunity to do something truly special with a strong bill to address violence. Instead, the bill aims to suppress the exercise of the Second Amendment by implementing onerous training requirements just to purchase a firearm, bans all of the most commonly-used guns in America and implements a draconian gun registration scheme that criminals will ignore. It even makes it illegal for a 15-year-old Boy Scout to use a .22 caliber rifle to earn a merit badge. Judges continue to set free criminals in the Commonwealth while the legislature makes law abiding citizens immediate felons.”

The negotiated legislation now includes, among other restrictions:

Full registration of ALL guns.
Onerous licensing and administrative requirements on retailers. For example, all guns in inventory need to be registered with the state before they are even sold.
Bans all legally-owned magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds. Those standard-capacity magazines already lawfully owned would be barred from transfer.
State police would create a roster of banned semi-automatic rifles and database of all guns.
Commissions to study “technologies” like microstamping that has already been proven by independent peer review research to be flawed and unreliable.
Live-fire requirement despite the fact there are very few public ranges where this can be done.
Publicly searchable in database of all lawful firearm owners.
Creates another government database to issue serial numbers for all firearms.
Small, independent retailers will be saddled with inventory they can no longer sell.

Failure to register a firearm could be punished by a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offense; (ii) by a fine of up to $7,500 or imprisonment up to six months, or by both, for a second offense; or (iii) by a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment for between one and five years, or by both, for a third or subsequent offense.

Massachusetts lawmakers introduced this legislation in reaction the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, that affirmed the Second Amendment is an individual right and governments cannot infringe on the ability to exercise that right in public. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion, “The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees. We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”

This proposed legislation by Massachusetts lawmakers is clearly unconstitutional as it would deny the Constitutionally-protected rights to keep and bear arms to adults under 21, who are fully-vested in the entire spectrum of their rights. This legislation is not compromise. It is a frontal attack on the liberties and rights belonging to law-abiding citizens of Massachusetts.

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About NSSF
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org.

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NSSF Media contact:
Mark Oliva
202-220-1340

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