Guns on the Ballot: Massachusetts Votes on Keeping Its Sweeping Firearm Law as Idaho Picks a State Gun

BOSTON, Oct. 25 (TodayViralUSA) — Voters in Massachusetts and Idaho will weigh in on firearms on Nov. 3, in ballot questions that capture how far apart the two states sit in America’s gun debate: one asks whether to keep some of the country’s toughest gun rules, the other asks which historic gun the state should honor.

Massachusetts: keep or repeal the 2024 law

Question 9 asks Massachusetts voters whether to uphold a sweeping firearms law the Legislature passed on July 18, 2024, by votes of 124 to 33 in the House and 35 to 5 in the Senate. A yes vote keeps the law in place; a no vote repeals it, according to the secretary of the commonwealth’s voter guide.

The law requires nearly all guns to carry serial numbers and be registered with the state, penalizes untraceable “ghost guns,” including 3D-printed weapons, and treats devices such as Glock switches and bump stocks as machine guns. It broadens the ban on assault-style weapons, raises the minimum age to own semiautomatic rifles and shotguns to 21, and bars guns in government buildings, polling places and schools, with some exceptions. It also lets school administrators and health care providers ask a court to temporarily remove guns from someone deemed a danger.

The question reached the ballot after opponents gathered petition signatures to force a referendum. Ordinarily that would have put the law on hold, but Gov. Maura Healey signed an emergency provision so it took effect immediately in 2024, The Associated Press reported. Gun owners now face a Wednesday deadline to register their firearms, six days before they vote on whether to repeal that requirement.

“It’s a total violation of people’s rights to require this before they have their chance to vote on it,” said Toby Leary, chair of The Civil Rights Coalition, which is leading the repeal effort. He also warned that a state database of gun owners could be a target for hackers and thieves.

Ruth Zakarin, who chairs the committee backing the law and leads the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, said it “preserves a legal pathway to gun ownership while also putting guardrails in place that keep people safe.”

Massachusetts became the third jurisdiction, after Hawaii and the District of Columbia, to adopt a comprehensive gun registry, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Federal law bars a national registry.

Idaho: choosing an official state gun

In Idaho, the Republican-led Legislature placed a nonbinding advisory question on the ballot asking voters to pick one of six historic firearms as “the state gun of Idaho.” House Majority Leader Jason Monks, who sponsored the measure, said it is meant partly to drive turnout and is timed to the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“There’s not much more patriotic in Idaho than guns,” Monks told the AP. If a clear winner emerges, he said, lawmakers will likely take up a bill in the 2027 session to make it official.

About three in five Idaho adults live in households with guns, among the highest rates in the nation, according to an estimate from the RAND Gun Policy in America initiative. Utah and Arizona were the first states to name official firearms, in 2011, choosing the Browning M1911 pistol and the Colt single-action Army revolver, respectively.