Massachusetts Voters Allow Restrictive Gun Law To Remain In Place
Massachusetts voters allowed a restrictive gun-control law to remain in place by a nearly 35-point margin Tuesday as part of a Democratic midterm sweep.
Harold Hutchison · Nov 4, 2026 · 2 min read
Massachusetts voters allowed a restrictive gun-control law to remain in place by a nearly 35-point margin Tuesday as part of a Democratic midterm sweep.
Pro-Second Amendment activists, such as the Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL), previously secured nearly 100,000 signatures to put a referendum on the 2026 Massachusetts ballot to ask if Bay State voters supported H.4885, a gun-control law passed in 2024. With 85% of the ballots counted, 67.2% of voters opted to keep the statute in place, according to election totals posted by The New York Times.
After the Supreme Court struck down New York’s discretionary system for issuing concealed carry permits in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen in June 2022, Massachusetts began the process of altering its gun laws to comply with the high court’s decision. Like other states who had “may issue” systems for issuing permits similar to New York’s, however, Massachusetts’s lawmakers seized the opportunity to enact additional restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.
Lawmakers added provisions in the legislation that further restrict modern semiautomatics, imposing registration criteria that targeted certain muzzleloaders, added new license requirements to own any semiautomatic firearm, imposed new stipulations on home-built firearms and added training prerequisites for those seeking carry permits.
Nonresidents were also made to have to jump through additional hoops, including the requirement to acquire a “temporary” license to carry, as well as having to register all firearms and comply with the state’s serialization requirements. The legislation even made it impossible for an out-of-state resident to take any child hunting in the state.
Republicans lost the House and Senate as Democrats swept multiple races in the South and Midwest, including flipping open seats in Iowa, North Carolina and Texas while ousting incumbents in Ohio, Kansas and South Carolina during Tuesday’s midterm elections, which also saw anti-Second Amendment groups make substantial gains in states carried by President Donald Trump in 2024.
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All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].