Massachusetts Voters Keep H.4885 Gun Control Law on the Books, 67% Back It With 85% of Ballots Counted

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BOSTON, MA — Massachusetts voters chose to keep H.4885, the sweeping 2024 gun control law, in place in Tuesday’s election. With 85% of ballots counted, 67.2% voted to retain the statute, a margin of nearly 35 points.

Those numbers come from a partial count, as reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The outlet also reported that gun-rights activists, including the Gun Owners’ Action League, gathered nearly 100,000 signatures to put the law in front of voters on the 2026 ballot.

Gov. Maura Healey signed H.4885 into law in July 2024. A successful referendum petition normally suspends a law until voters have their say. Healey prevented that by signing an emergency preamble on Oct. 2, 2024, which put the law into effect immediately, according to Gun Owners of America. The law has been enforced for two years while the question waited for the ballot.

Here is what voters kept, based on GOA’s summary of the law and the Daily Caller News Foundation’s reporting:

• New restrictions on modern semiautomatics, which GOA describes as a semi-automatic firearm and “high-capacity” magazine ban, plus a new license requirement to own any semiautomatic firearm.
• Registration criteria that reach certain muzzleloaders.
• Tougher rules on homemade firearms, with frames and receivers expected to be serialized.
• An expansion of the state’s red flag laws.
• A new licensing curriculum that includes injury prevention, suicide prevention, disengagement tactics, live-fire training and a written exam.
• A ban on “undetectable firearms.”
• Changes to information protection law that GOA says give state criminal justice officials access to gun owners’ personal data.

Nonresidents carry extra burdens under the law. They must obtain a “temporary” license to carry, register all firearms and comply with the state’s serialization requirements. The Daily Caller News Foundation also reported that the law makes it impossible for an out-of-state resident to take any child hunting in Massachusetts.

For anyone carrying in the Bay State or applying for a license, the training prerequisites for carry permits stay in place. My Massachusetts concealed carry laws and permit information page is the place to start. A state-mandated course is a floor. Your training and mindset should not stop there.

More from USA Carry:

• Massachusetts Gun Owners Must Register Their Firearms Today, Six Days Before Voters Decide Whether to Keep the Registry Law
• Springfield’s New 3.5-Inch Prodigy Hybrid Keeps the Short Slide and Gives You the Whole Grip Back
• Federal Judge Upholds Massachusetts Handgun Ban for 18- to 20-Year-Olds, Rejecting NRA and SAF Challenge
• Federal & State Background Checks for Firearms: Issues and Ideas
• Virginia FFLs Put the ARs Back on the Shelf. The Statute Blocking Them Is Still on the Books.

The ballot fight is separate from the court fight. GOA said in October 2024 that its legal team would challenge the law in court. The NRA filed a lawsuit in February 2025 challenging the Massachusetts ban on the possession and carry of handguns and semiautomatic firearms by adults under 21, according to NRA-ILA. Tuesday’s vote asked whether voters wanted to keep the law. Whether the law is constitutional is a question for the courts.

I will continue tracking the final count and the court challenges to H.4885.

Legislative data provided by LegiScan (CC BY 4.0, legiscan.com).

Read the original story: Massachusetts Voters Keep H.4885 Gun Control Law on the Books, 67% Back It With 85% of Ballots Counted