What's in Massachusetts'
New Gun-Ban Measure

By Mark Chesnut. July 15, 2023

Massachusetts firearm owners are up against a wall, facing one of the most-extreme gun-ban measures introduced to date.

In fact, HD 4420 is so egregious that the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) has described the bill like this: "HD 4420 is a collection of all the worst gun policies in America, and in the post-Bruen era, a bill that will likely not hold up in court. This bill rewrites Massachusetts gun laws to implement the harshest gun control in the country and severely infringes upon the rights of Massachusetts' citizens."

The recently introduced legislation would force all kinds of punitive restrictions on gun owners in the state—so many it would take several stories to describe all of the negative, and clearly unconstitutional, provisions. Let's take a brief look at four of them.

Expands definition of already banned "assault weapons"

Per the measure, the state's definition of an "assault weapon" would now include firearms with only a single cosmetic feature that gun-ban advocates don't like. For rifles, this includes a pistol grip; a folding, telescopic or thumbhole stock; a threaded barrel; a forward grip; or a barrel shroud. This would immediately outlaw many firearms currently legally owned by Massachusetts residents. .....