Massachusetts House lawmakers approved a measure on Oct. 18 that would tighten the state’s firearm laws and crack down on unregistered “ghost guns,” which gun rights advocates claim is “the worst anti-gun legislation in the country.”
The bill, H. 4135, was passed by the Massachusetts House on a 120–38 vote. It would mandate that key gun components be serialized and registered with the state, it proposes an enhanced system to curtail the flow of illegal guns into the state, and it seeks to modernize the existing firearm registration system. It would also expand the state’s ban on assault weapons by prohibiting the purchase of AR-15-style weapons and would ban the conversion of a legal firearm into an illegal automatic weapon.