The Civil Rights Coalition, which is the grassroots organization that managed to collect nearly 100,000 signatures to put Massachusetts’ latest gun laws before a vote of the people, has received $50,000 from former Massachusetts gunmaker Smith & Wesson in support of its effort to repeal Chapter 135.
Smith & Wesson, of course, was headquarted in the state for more than a century before Massachusetts’ gun laws made it virtually impossible to continue to manufacture some of its most popular products. I think it’s great that the company is continuing to support the state’s gun owners, but one gun control activist in the Boston area is calling out the donation… even as he ignores the millions of dollars Michael Bloomberg and other anti-gun billionaires have spent to restrict the right to keep and bear arms.
Brady organizing director JP Thomas says it’s “crucial” that Massachusetts voters know about Smith & Wesson’s donation, which he claims is part of “a blueprint for the firearms industry to start rolling back strong gun laws in state after state, exposing more Americans to violence.”
An alliance of political operatives, a gun shop owner, and the state’s gun lobby, operating as the “Civil Rights Coalition,” gathered enough signatures to force the upcoming statewide referendum to repeal the “Act Modernizing Firearm Laws.”
This landmark legislative package addressed critical gaps in the state’s laws by outlawing build-it-yourself, unserialized firearms; empowering clinicians and school administrators to file Extreme Risk Protection Orders to remove a gun when a person poses serious danger; and strengthening the state ban on the possession, transfer, and sale of assault-style firearms.
If this law were to be repealed, communities would be less equipped to stop shootings. Without a comprehensive legal framework to remove a gun from a dangerous situation, school officials and doctors, who are using Extreme Risk Protection Orders for deescalation, would have their hands tied even when they see clear warning signs.
The state expanded who could file “red flag” petitions because anti-gunners complained that the police weren’t utilizing the law (24 ERPO petitions were filed statewide in 2024, for example). That doesn’t mean that the law is suddenly more valuable, and it certainly doesn’t mean that it as any additional due process protections in place.
Outlawing build-it-yourself firearms flies in the face of the national tradition of gun ownership, as does the state’s ban on many popular and commonly owned rifles, pistols, and shotguns. The new law also imposes new training mandates on would-be gun owners, who much acquire a License to Carry if they want to possess a handgun in their home.
While those hoping to lawfully exercise their Second Amendment rights face new burdens, the state’s restrictive laws are having little impact on violent criminals. Already this year we’ve seen a convicted felon use a banned rifle to randomly target motorists in Cambridge, a teen use a handgun to rob a lemonade stand in South Boston, and a man who was given a suspended sentence for assault with a dangerous weapon in 2023 allegedly commit a carjacking and run over a pedestrian in his stolen vehicle.
Massachusetts also has the highest violent crime rate in New England, despite (or maybe because of) its restrictive laws. Permitless carry Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are all far safer than the Bay State, and are far more free as well.
The voters of Massachusetts have the chance to claw back some of that freedom this November, but they’re going to need to be educated by folks who are knowledgeable about the real impact of Chapter 135. Anti-gun groups like Brady and Everytown will be doing everything they can to convince residents that having their fundamental rights turned into privileges makes them better off in the long run, but if they’re not votng to repeal Chapter 135 then they’re really voting for a system where a veteran can face years in prison for simply possessing firearms without a license while violent offenders walk away with a slap on the wrist and nothing more than probation.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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