The Vote Yes for a Safe Massachusetts Campaign: How to Help Protect our Gun Safety Laws

Becca Kornet, Progressive Mass Western Norfolk County

Alejandra Rivera, Policy Manager at the Mass Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, led a breakout group at Progressive Mass’s 2026 Annual Meeting on January 31st about the effort to repeal recent gun safety legislation. In 2024, Maura Healey signed a new gun safety bill into law – An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws. While Massachusetts already had strong gun safety laws, this legislation closed many loopholes (e.g., regulation of ghost guns), making it MA’s most significant gun safety legislation in a decade and raising the Commonwealth to an A grade rating on the Giffords Scorecard. The law went into effect in July 2024; by October of that same year, extremists filed a petition to repeal it.


This question will be on the ballot in November 2026. While we won’t know the question number until the spring, we do know that we need to vote YES to keep the current legislation as it is and not repeal it. As is often the case, the yes/no wording on ballot questions can be confusing or counterintuitive, so it’s critical we start getting the word out to our networks now so we can build awareness and education.


The group behind the push to repeal the legislation is GOAL – the Gun Owners Action League. Their messaging is often misleading. For example, their website is TheCivilRightsCoaltion.com, which may lead people to assume a very different intent. They are well-funded, with about $170K in the bank to fund their campaign.


To learn more, get involved, or make a financial contribution to help them combat the spending that is sure to come up from our opponents, go to https://www.yesforasafema.com. Vote YES for a Safe Massachusetts!

The MA House Held “Listening Sessions” This Week. Did Your Rep Speak Up?

This week, MA House Democratic Leadership held a series of listening sessions to learn about what rank-and-file members want to do about ICE and about protecting our immigrant communities in Massachusetts.

The fact that these listening sessions are happening is an indicator that your calls and emails are breaking through: they know they need to do something.

But here’s a question: if they were listening, who was talking?

Was your state rep speaking up and advocating for policy that meets the moment? The only way to know is to ask.

Feel free to use our writing tool or find your state rep’s phone number and email and reach out with a simple script:

“I was glad to hear that the MA House held listening sessions this week about action to take to rein in ICE and protect our communities. It is important in Massachusetts that we prevent state and local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE or being deputized as ICE agents. What priorities did you bring up in the listening sessions this week, and how are you working with colleagues to turn them into law?”

Email Your State Rep

Other states are taking action. Just yesterday, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill to prohibit state and local governments from entering into agreements to detain individuals for civil immigration violations, stop the use of public land for immigration detention, and ban 287(g) agreements that turn local law enforcement into immigration agents. MA should be leading, not playing catch-up.

PM in the News: “After months of escalation, Healey took action to counter ICE. Fellow Democrats ask: Is it enough?”

Samantha Gross and Matt Stout, “After months of escalation, Healey took action to counter ICE. Fellow Democrats ask: Is it enough?,” Boston Globe, February 3, 2026.

Jonathan Cohn, policy director at the advocacy group Progressive Mass., said Healey admittedly can’t stop ICE operations here, but questioned whether the state is using its “full power” to push back.

“Putting garlic on your door to ward off a vampire is good,” he said, “but what happens if it doesn’t work?”

Tell Gov. Healey: De-ICE Massachusetts

Last week, Gov. Healey held a press conference focused on a new executive order and new proposed legislation aimed at ICE. But here’s a problem: she reaffirmed her commitment to continued collaboration with ICE.

MA is the only state in New England with a collaboration agreement, known as 287(g), between the state’s Department of Correction and ICE and the only New England Democratic governor to have any collaboration agreement at all.

Massachusetts should not be making ICE’s job easier. End stop.

Email Gov. Healey and tell her it’s time to end the contract with ICE.

NYT: “ICE Is Watching You”

In an excellent op-ed this morning, NYT opinion writer Tressie McMillan Cottom explains how ICE is building a massive surveillance apparatus through buying up our data (“ICE Is Watching You“):

“The federal government may have abdicated its responsibility to protect our civil liberties by regulating who can use our data and to what ends. Some states are stepping in, creating their own data privacy laws. But there is still much more to be done, in state legislatures and in Congress. And it all starts with the American people understanding that our freedoms are now bound up in who controls our data.

End the spectacle of vicarious violence. Abolish ICE.

But to end the structure of violence that has ensnared our civil liberties, we will also have to finally, finally turn our attention to who is controlling the damn phones.“

That’s why we are so committed to passing strong data privacy legislation this session.

The MA Senate passed a bill in September, and the House is likely to vote on its own bill soon.

Big Tech companies like Facebook and Google have been lobbying to water it down so that they can keep profiting off our data. Your state rep needs to hear from you that you want a bill with robust protection and robust enforcement.

Email Your State Rep

What if you have already emailed your state rep? Here’s what you can do next:

  • Call your state rep. You can find their number here. Here’s a quick message: “Can I count on the Rep to talk to House Leadership about passing a strong data privacy bill that bans the sale of sensitive data and has clear, robust enforcement mechanisms?” If you want a specific bill number, you can mention the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act (H.4746).
  • Email five friends. Do you know other friends in your own state rep district or on the other side of the Commonwealth? Ask them to take action too.