YES on 9 (Gun Violence Prevention)
A YES on Question 9 would uphold the landmark 2024 gun safety law passed by the MA Legislature and signed by Governor Maura Healey.
The law does the following:
- Regulates untraceable ghost guns for the first time
- Strengthens the Commonwealth’s firearms licensing laws
- Updates and expands our Extreme Risk Protection Order laws to better prevent suicides and mass shootings
- Creates a publicly accessible firearms data dashboard
- Bans machine gun conversion devices
- Prohibits the carrying of firearms in polling places and government buildings
- Ensures gun dealers are inspected regularly and accurately
Question 9 is on the ballot because the gun lobby and gun extremists want to repeal existing, effective gun safety measures. It’s critical that we vote YES to help keep our communities safe.
Gun violence is preventable. Massachusetts has one of the lowest gun death rates in the country because our state has been a national leader on gun violence prevention efforts, grounded in community-led solutions and evidence-based research. Because of Massachusetts’ strong gun safety laws, Massachusetts has an A grade in the GIFFORDS annual state scorecard, and we should keep it that way.
The 2024 law established critical protections against untraceable ghost guns and conversion kits that transform semi-automatic weapons into machine guns; it expanded Extreme Risk Protection Orders that help prevent gun suicides and mass shootings; it created a dashboard to help track firearms used in crimes; and much more. Many critical elements of the law have already been implemented, and the benefits are clear. Data collection is far more robust and more accessible. The serialization portal for ghost guns makes our communities safer by reducing the number of these untraceable guns on our streets. Medical providers are now getting trained to access and petition for ERPOs in civil court, an essential suicide prevention tool.
Unlike the more common “initiative petitions” a “referendum petition” like Question 9 seeks to repeal an existing law in its entirety. This question was put on the ballot by the opponents of the bill, who are now the “NO on 9” campaign and call themselves the “Civil Rights Coalition.” The top funders of the NO campaign are Smith & Wesson, the Gun Owners Action League (Massachusetts’ NRA affiliate), and Old Colony Sportsmen’s Association.
The top funders of the YES On 9 For a Safe Massachusetts ballot committee, which is the campaign to PROTECT the law, are gun violence prevention groups and labor unions including AFT Massachusetts, MTA, SEIU 509, SEIU 32BJ, Massachusetts Nurses Association, and more.
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Massachusetts has among the strongest gun safety laws in the country, and we should keep it that way by voting YES on 9 this November.
Back in 2023 and 2024, experts, advocates, community activists, and legislative leaders worked together to pass a comprehensive gun safety bill, rooted in community feedback and policy research. That bill took important steps like cracking down on ghost guns, strengthening our firearms licensing laws, banning machine gun conversion devices, prohibiting guns at polling places, and improving our gun violence data collection. Because of this success, Massachusetts now has an A grade in the GIFFORDS annual scorecard on gun laws.
However, as soon as the law passed, opponents – supported by the gun lobby – launched an effort to repeal the law and roll back this essential progress in public health and community safety. Voting YES on 9 will preserve the existing 2024 law and send a clear message that MA voters stand by policy leadership and data- and community-backed solutions, against the gun lobby and efforts to make our communities less safe.
Read More
- Learn more about the campaign at https://www.yesforasafema.com/.
- Learn more about the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence at https://www.mapreventgunviolence.org.
- GIFFORDS Annual Gun Law Scorecard. https://giffords.org/lawcenter/resources/scorecard.
- Colin Young. “Gov. Healey signs gun law, saying it ‘will save lives’.” State House News Service. July 25, 2024.