Massachusetts gun law opponents deliver boxes of signatures

• Chris Lisinski

Volunteers toting jam-packed white cardboard boxes dropped off nearly 100,000 voter signatures with the secretary of state’s office Wednesday, one of the final hurdles en route to placing a question on the 2026 ballot about repealing a new gun law.

The Civil Rights Coalition, launched by gun owners outraged by the new restrictions, spent several weeks collecting voter signatures from across Massachusetts and is now on the verge of moving to the next phase in a two-year campaign.

Gov. Maura Healey this month signed an emergency preamble to the wide-reaching law, allowing it to take effect immediately and preventing opponents from suspending it through their repeal effort.

The measure cracks down on untraceable ghost guns, bans firearms in certain public places, expands the state’s “red flag” law and more.

“Maura Healey and her cohorts in the Legislature have conspired to defraud you of your God-given rights that no elected official nor man has the authority to take away,” said Toby Leary, the co-owner of Cape Gun Works who is leading the coalition. “We ask our governor and Legislature: by what authority do you act upon our unalienable rights? You lack the constitutional authority to take away guns that are in common and ordinary use for lawful purposes and declare peaceful citizens felons just by moving the goal posts and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. This is what abuse of power looks like.”

Anti-gun violence groups have repeatedly praised the new law as an important addition to existing firearms restrictions in Massachusetts, which has one of the lowest rates of gun fatalities in the nation.

“Every resident of Massachusetts has the right to live free from the threat and trauma of gun violence. As this weekend’s tragic fatal shootings in Fitchburg and Springfield demonstrate, we are in the midst of a public health crisis and we need every tool at our disposal to solve it,” the MA Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence said Wednesday, shortly after the law’s opponents hosted a press conference. “This comprehensive gun violence prevention law gives us more of these tools, and the Coalition is committed to protecting this lifesaving piece of legislation from repeal.”