After a difficult day on Beacon Hill, Massachusetts state senators voted 37-3 to pass a sweeping gun reform bill, setting up talks with the House that could lead to a major new law later this spring or summer.
The Senate bill seeks to rein in untraceable ghost guns, ban carrying firearms in government administrative buildings, give firearm licensing authorities access to some of an applicant's mental health hospitalization history, and expand the list of people who can petition the court to take away someone's guns if they are deemed dangerous.
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"Although proud that Massachusetts has one of the lowest rates of gun violence in the nation, the members of this body are concerned by every incident of gun violence, every firearm suicide, and every accidental gun injury that occurs in the commonwealth," said Sen. Cindy Creem of Newton, the majority leader and the main author of the bill.
The package filed by Creem hit the Senate floor at 12:30 p.m. Thursday and Minority Leader Bruce Tarr wasted no time pointing out some of the issues that Republicans see with the bill, including that it did not get its own public hearing.
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Creem's proposal represents the Senate's long-anticipated response to the bill that cleared the House last fall.
Tarr argued that lawmakers were headed down "a very dangerous path" by not holding a public hearing on the Creem proposal, which was assembled following many private meetings. Creem said the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security held a hearing on other gun bills last year, giving people interested in the topic an opportunity to be heard.
Creem said the principles underlying the bill were "concern for the safety of our residents, respect for the Second Amendment, and a focus on the root cause of gun crime and gun accidents, and a commitment to equity underlies each of the policies included in this comprehensive bill."
“The bill before us will reduce gun deaths and gun injuries in Massachusetts, it will do so without infringing on gun owners' rights,” she said on the floor.
Gun rights advocates don’t seem to share that sentiment.
“There was a lot of industry stuff, those terminologies were so broad, they include me,” said Jim Wallace of the Gun Owners Action League.
Wallace also balked at the quick turnaround from when the bill was introduced.
“We've only had since Thursday. We were asking that the bill be tabled so everyone could take a hard look at this,” said Wallace.
"The bill, the components, nearly all were heard in November for nearly four and a half hours," Creem said.
Those hearings were tied back to the original House bill, of which the Senate is building off. Meanwhile, gun reform supporters are pushing for approval.
"We are in this to make sure that we reduce the trauma of gun violence," said Ruth Zakarin of Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.
The bill will now return to the House, where objections can be heard and potentially referred to a conference committee.
