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BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey took motion Wednesday to instantly implement a sweeping new gun law that cracks down on privately made, unserialized “ghost weapons,” criminalizes possession of bump shares and set off cranks and requires candidates for a gun license to finish live-fire coaching,
The brand new legislation was permitted in July and was set to take impact later this month.
The motion by Healey frustrates efforts by gun rights activists who had hoped to assemble sufficient signatures to droop the legislation earlier than it took impact.
The legislation additionally expands the state’s “purple flag” legislation to let police in addition to well being care and college officers alert the courts in the event that they imagine somebody with entry to weapons poses a hazard and may have their firearms taken away, no less than quickly.
“This gun security legislation bans ghost weapons, strengthens the Excessive Danger Safety Order statute to maintain weapons out of the fingers of people who find themselves a hazard to themselves or others, and invests in violence prevention packages,” Healey mentioned in a press release. “It is crucial that these measures go into impact at once.”
Gun rights advocates have known as the measure an “historic assault on our civil rights” saying it locations pointless boundaries to law-abiding residents in search of to personal a gun.
Activists have been seeking to droop the legislation till voters can weigh in on a possible 2026 referendum that will repeal it. To maintain it from taking impact, they wanted to file no less than 49,716 signatures from registered voters, which may even assist assure the query is positioned on the poll.
Healey’s choice to place the legislation into impact instantly blocks any non permanent suspension of the legislation.
The legislation was enacted partially as a response to the Supreme Courtroom’s 2022 Bruen decision declaring residents have a proper to hold firearms in public for self-defense.
A federal lawsuit additionally filed by gun advocates argues that the Massachusetts legislation is unconstitutional, characterizing it as “onerous firearms laws that imposes sweeping arms bans, journal restrictions, registration necessities, and licensing preconditions which might be as burdensome as they’re ahistorical.”
The go well with — which cites the Bruen choice — asks the federal court docket to difficulty a brief restraining order or preliminary injunction barring the state from implementing the “burdensome licensing regimes on the possession and carry of firearms for self protection.”
The Massachusetts law prohibits individuals who aren’t a part of legislation enforcement from carrying weapons at colleges, polling areas and authorities buildings. It additionally requires these making use of for a license to hold firearms to display a fundamental understanding of security ideas and gives native licensing authorities with related psychological well being data.
District attorneys would be capable to prosecute individuals who shoot at or close to properties, which additionally seeks to make sure folks topic to restraining orders not have entry to weapons.
The brand new legislation additionally expands the definition of “assault weapons” to incorporate identified assault weapons and different weapons that perform like them. It bans the possession, switch or sale of assault-style firearms or large-capacity feeding gadgets.
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