Massachusetts ballot measure · November 3, 2026

Massachusetts Question 9, explained

Keeping or repealing the 2024 firearms law. A ballot measure is a yes-or-no question put directly to voters — no candidate is involved, and the wording on the ballot is the wording that becomes law. This page shows that wording first, then what it actually changes.

The official wording

QUESTION 9: Referendum on an Existing Law — Firearms Regulation. Do you approve of a law summarized below, which was approved by the House of Representatives on July 18, 2024 by a vote of 124 to 33, and approved by the Senate on July 18, 2024 by a vote of 35 to 5? SUMMARY (written by the State Attorney General, as required by law): This law makes a number of changes to Massachusetts laws governing firearms. The law adds school administrators and licensed healthcare providers as parties permitted to ask a court to issue an Extreme Risk Protection Order — requiring an individual to surrender or relinquish their firearm licenses, permits, and firearms — if an individual is a present danger to self or others. The law also provides that, when issuing a Harassment Prevention Order, a court may also order the surrender of firearms licenses, permits, and firearms. The law imposes penalties for possessing, creating, and transferring untraceable "ghost gun" firearms and requires all firearms except antiques and relics, including unfinished frames and receivers that can be readily made into a finished product, to have serial numbers. The law includes privately-made guns like 3D-printed guns within the provisions governing untraceable "ghost gun" firearms. The law changes firearms licensing requirements, including requiring an individual to be 21 years of age to own semiautomatic rifles or shotguns. The law changes the definition of "machine gun" to include bump stocks, trigger cranks, Glock switches and auto sears. It expands the definition of "silencer" to include the parts used to construct a silencer. The law clarifies how to determine whether a firearm is an assault-style weapon and the circumstances under which a person may continue to possess assault-style weapons and large capacity feeding devices they already own. It prohibits the carrying of firearms in government buildings, polling locations, and schools, with certain exceptions. The law criminalizes discharging a firearm and striking a building in use.

This is what appears on the ballot. Everything below explains it.

What it actually means

This is the one question on the ballot where a yes vote changes nothing. In 2024 the Legislature passed An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws, a 116-page overhaul covering ghost guns, machine gun conversion devices, assault-style weapons, extreme risk orders, licensing and where guns may be carried. Opponents gathered signatures to put it to a referendum. A yes vote keeps the law; a no vote repeals it.

If you vote YES

The official statement of effect: "A YES VOTE would keep in place the law, which increases the regulation of firearms, including ghost guns, machine guns, and assault-style weapons."
School administrators and licensed health care providers could continue to petition for an Extreme Risk Protection Order requiring someone who is a present danger to surrender firearms and licences, and courts could continue to order surrender when issuing a Harassment Prevention Order.
Penalties for untraceable "ghost guns" and 3D-printed firearms remain, as does the requirement that firearms other than antiques and relics — including unfinished frames and receivers that can readily be finished — carry serial numbers.
Bump stocks, trigger cranks, Glock switches and auto sears remain within the definition of "machine gun," and silencer parts within the definition of "silencer."
The minimum age of 21 to own semiautomatic rifles or shotguns stays, as do the carry prohibitions in government buildings, polling places and schools, the State Police training and testing requirement, the firearms data dashboard, and the two special legislative commissions.
The state's fiscal statement notes the Commonwealth has already invested in implementing the law — training employees, new licensure processes and IT infrastructure.

If you vote NO

The official statement of effect: "A NO VOTE would repeal this law."
Massachusetts firearm law would revert to what it was before Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, which supporters and opponents agree was already among the strictest in the country.
The provisions on ghost guns and serial numbers on unfinished frames and receivers, the expanded machine gun and silencer definitions, the age-21 rule for semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, the expanded Extreme Risk Protection Order petitioners, and the carry prohibitions in government buildings, polling places and schools would all fall.
The state's fiscal statement says repeal "would require the Commonwealth to expend resources in suspending or re-directing those investments" already made to implement the law.

The numbers that matter

Legislative votes when the law passed in 2024: 124-33 in the House and 35-5 in the Senate, both on July 18, 2024
Fiscal effect of repeal: the Commonwealth would have to expend resources suspending or re-directing implementation investments already made

Why supporters say YES

"A YES vote will keep in place Massachusetts' lifesaving 2024 gun safety law. The law made vital updates, including banning ghost guns; outlawing devices that turn semi-automatic weapons into machine guns; expanding tools to help prevent firearm suicide and mass shootings; creating a firearms data dashboard to better understand gun trafficking; and more. Thanks to our comprehensive approach to gun violence prevention, Massachusetts has a gun death rate 70% lower than the national average."
— Official argument in favour, 2026 Information for Voters, authored by Ned Notis-McConarty for Vote Yes for a Safe Massachusetts

Why opponents say NO

"Before the new law, the state already had some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Chapter 135 isn't about public safety—it is a deeply flawed, 116-page piece of bureaucratic overreach that wastes valuable tax dollars and burdens local communities. Passed without proper planning, the law mandates an expensive, real-time electronic tracking system that the state hasn't funded and doesn't know how to build. It also forces local police departments to enforce a confusing patchwork of vague rules… State agencies have struggled to explain the law, issuing dozens of clarifications for rules that treat harmless historical re-enactors and antique hobbyists like criminals."
— Official argument against, 2026 Information for Voters, authored by Toby Leary for The Civil Rights Coalition

What’s genuinely uncertain

Because this is a referendum on an existing law, the direction of the vote is the reverse of the other eight questions: yes keeps the law, no repeals it.
The law is long and the Attorney General's summary is correspondingly long; the summary quoted here is condensed from the official text, which also covers dealer inspections by the State Police, licensing authority access to mental health commitment records, self-defence spray permits for 12-to-18-year-olds, carry and transport rules for motor vehicles and ATVs, and expanded data reporting.
The claims on both sides — the state's gun death rate, the cost and workability of the tracking system, the treatment of re-enactors and antique collectors — are the campaigns' own, and the voter guide states the Commonwealth does not certify the accuracy of either argument.
The state's fiscal statement does not put a figure on either the investments already made or the cost of unwinding them.

The bottom line

Whether to keep the 2024 firearms overhaul in force or repeal it; supporters say its ghost gun, machine gun and risk-order provisions are already in use and working, opponents say it is a long and confusing law layered on rules that were already among the nation's strictest.

One neutral sentence describing the tradeoff — not a recommendation.

Sources:ma.omniballot.us sec.state.ma.us ballotpedia.org

Checking it against the official text

The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth publishes the certified measures and, in most states, an official voter guide with fiscal notes. That is the authoritative version. Everything here is an explanation of it, not a substitute for it.

Confirm this with the official source

Your ballot is determined by your election authority, not by us. Verify your registration, precinct, and sample ballot at Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth.

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