Gun Reform Summary - H.4885
Thank you for your interest in H. 4885 - An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws. The bill was passed by the House on July 18, 2024. I voted in favor of the bill.Having passed both the House and the Senate now, this bill now goes to the Governor's desk for her signature. She has 10 days to accept or reject the bill, or return any amendments to the Legislature. If the bill is not signed within 10 days, it becomes law automatically.
This legislation builds on the critical reforms that we made in 2014 by further addressing gun violence that pervades our communities and making residents of the Commonwealth safer. Massachusetts has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation and has one of the lowest rates of crime involving firearms. This bill is attempt to close loopholes and create tighter regulations to make Massachusetts safer.
The Legislature began working on this bill after the SCOTUS Bruen Decision in 2022 that struck down a provision of New York law that required a person to prove they had a “proper cause” to carry a firearm in public in order to obtain a concealed carry permit. This decision directly impacted a similar provision in Massachusetts General Laws pertaining to concealed carry permitting laws that make it easier for people to obtain a License to Carry concealed handgun in our communities and bring them to places they don’t belong, such as government buildings, day care centers, and other places where children and families gather.
The bill that was passed yesterday amended those areas in the law by governing the issuance of licenses to carry firearms and proposes solutions to emerging threats in technology.
Some key components of the bill include:
Firearm Carry and Transport, Deal Inspections, Licensing: Consolidates and reorganizes current firearm licensing section into a unified process, restructures penalties for failure to report firearm loss or theft, allows local licensing authorities to transfer their dealer inspection responsibilities to the Massachusetts State Police and clarifies law around firearm transit to make consistent with 2013 SJC holding.
“Ghost guns”: Requires the serialization of all firearms and provides clear procedure for serializing homemade firearms, creates specific penalties for untraceable firearms, updates covert firearm definitions to encompass 3-D printed guns and bans the sale of 3-D printers marketed for making firearms.
Firearm Data, Registration, and Reporting: Consolidates firearm registration, reporting and tracing into one state database, expands data compilation and reporting requirements, and creates publicly accessible online dashboard of firearm data.
Training and Violence Prevention: Requires State Police training curriculum for all new licenses to carry or Firearm ID applicants and requires local licensing authorities to attend training and reporting responsibilities, requires dealer applicants to complete online about their responsibilities and employee safety, and establishes a special legislative commission to examine government funding for violence prevention services in the Commonwealth and tasks the commission with submitting a report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.
Harassment Prevention Order (HPO) and Extreme Risk Protective Order (ERPO): Allows courts to order dispossession of licenses and firearms with the issuance of an HPO, enables family members, law enforcement, school administrators and licensed healthcare providers to petition a court for an ERPO and allows courts to enter ERPOs on unlicensed individuals.
Emerging Technology Commission: Establishes a special legislative commission to study emerging firearm technology and tasks this commission with reporting their findings and recommendations to the legislature.
I have attached a more detailed summary of the Conference Committee report for H.4885 below if you are interested in further details on this legislation.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact my office if you have any questions or concerns.
Best regards,
Jay
