Photo: Chris Lisinski/SHNS
BOSTON (State House News Service) — Opponents of a major new gun law say they have collected a bit less than half of the signatures they need by early next month to suspend the measure until voters would potentially get a chance to decide its fate in 2026.
A group of gun owners and Second Amendment supporters, who dubbed themselves The Civil Rights Coalition, said Thursday they are "very confident" about gathering enough voter signatures before an Oct. 9 deadline that marks the next hurdle en route to giving voters the final say on one of this legislative session's most sweeping laws.
Uncorking heated criticism for the measure that lawmakers pushed through along party lines, campaign organizers described their repeal effort as part of a "multi-pronged approach" alongside litigation.
"We're literally in unprecedented waters here. There's never been gun control legislation like this passed anywhere else in the country," said Toby Leary, a co-owner of Cape Gun Works in Hyannis who is chairing the coalition.
There are two targets for signature-gatherers. They need to collect at least 37,287 signatures to place a question on the 2026 ballot seeking to repeal the law, and if they can get at least 49,716, they could also pause the law for the two-plus years until then.
However, Gov. Maura Healey could take that second option off the board and ensure the law she enthusiastically signed takes effect while a repeal push plays out. Under the state Constitution, if a governor files a statement with the secretary of state with an emergency preamble, the law immediately takes effect -- even if it had been suspended as a result of sufficient signatures gathered by opponents.
Leary said volunteers are "a little less than halfway" to that higher signature-gathering target. He said coalition leaders have "thought about" using paid signature-gatherers -- a strategy many ballot question campaigns deploy -- but think they can cross the threshold using only volunteers.
The group has not yet reported any fundraising information to state campaign finance regulators, and Leary told reporters Thursday the coalition has raised "tens of thousands of dollars towards our initial goal of $200,000."
Organizers face an Oct. 9 deadline to file signatures with local elections officials for certification, and they must then submit certified signatures to the secretary of state's office by Oct. 23.
"There's no time to sleep. We have about three weeks to get almost 50,000 signatures [total]. We're well on our way to getting there," Leary said. "We really need to call awareness, because most people don't even know it happened. It literally happened under their noses by politicians that swore an oath of office and then went into their chambers and violated their oaths by proposing laws that are contrary to the Constitution."
Healey has said she "absolutely" opposes suspension of the new law, but hasn't made clear when she might act to prevent that from happening. The Constitution says a governor can file an emergency preamble "at any time before the election at which it is to be submitted to the people on referendum."
Lawmakers did not add an emergency preamble to the measure when they drafted and then approved it. Most laws without emergency preambles take effect 90 days after a governor's signature, though portions of the gun law have later effective dates embedded in the law.
The law cuts across many different facets of gun regulations and public safety, including an attempt to limit the proliferation of untraceable ghost guns, expansion of the state's red flag law, prohibition of firearms in some public spaces and more.
Democrats and gun control supporters touted it as a major improvement that will keep Bay Staters safer.
"This is another example of commonsense gun reform legislation," Healey said last month. "It's legislation that I signed that had the widespread support of law enforcement, and it's just the right move we need to make in the state to make it safer."
After some inter-branch sniping slowed the initial rollout, the House approved its draft of the bill in October 2023 on a 120-38 vote, and the Senate approved a redraft on Feb. 1 with a 37-3 vote. The measure fell out of public view for months while a Democrat-led conference committee negotiated a final version. They filed that accord on July 17, and both branches voted to send it to Healey a day later.
Repeal supporters slammed that process as part of the problem.
"The Legislature did not do its due diligence. They were handed a bogus summary, and they voted on the worst attack on civil rights in modern U.S. history without even looking at the bill and understanding what it did," said Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League.
Wallace invoked the actions of segregationist Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, who infamously blocked Black students from entering the University of Alabama, as a point of comparison for the gun law, which Democrats drafted partly in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Bruen decision about the constitutionality of carrying firearms in public.
"This is the greatest attack on civil rights we've seen in a very, very long time. It's very reminiscent of the actions of Governor Wallace of Alabama after Brown v. Board of Education, because that's what this is: a tantrum, because the United States Supreme Court said [Massachusetts officials] were wrong on how they were treating the Second Amendment community, and they have to stop doing it," he said. "Rather than obeying the court, just like Governor Wallace did many years ago, they doubled down and made it even worse."
Some opponents are also challenging the law in court.
A group of Bay Staters and GOAL filed a federal lawsuit last month alleging that sections of the law overhauling licensing for firearms identification cards and licenses to carry are unconstitutional.
Wallace said he believes that case will be one of several to unfold in the coming years, suggesting the law is too far-reaching to be tackled in a single lawsuit.
Written by Chris Lisinski/SHNS
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