What politician doesn’t like a good photo-op with a gun reform advocate like former congresswoman Gabby Giffords — and in the middle of National Gun Violence Awareness Month, no less.
So last week’s photo-op of Massachusetts’ Senate president and House speaker with Giffords and their pledges of real change certainly raised the ante on passing a critical gun reform bill.
But that means getting it out of a legislative conference committee assigned to reconcile House and Senate versions of the bill and on to the floor for a vote before lawmakers wrap up formal sessions July 31.
Both versions of the gun reform legislation contain some long overdue changes that would essentially outlaw those untraceable, build-at-home ghost guns, prohibit the ownership of devices that turn semiautomatic weapons into even more rapid-firing devices, narrow the kind of public places where guns can be carried, and broaden the state’s so-called red flag laws to keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a risk to themselves or the community.
And if the Massachusetts public has learned anything in recent days, it is that we cannot look to this Congress and certainly not to this Supreme Court to protect us from the scourge of gun violence. When a majority on the nation’s highest court can twist the definition of a machine gun into a pretzel in order to preserve the use of bump stocks — the device used by a lone gunman in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting that killed 60 people — well, then we truly are on our own.
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Massachusetts’ 2017 law banning the sale and possession of bump stocks remains on the books.
Likewise, while the Supreme Court last week preserved the right of a state to suspend the gun license of a person subject to a domestic violence restraining order, Massachusetts’ law is among the broadest in the nation and has been in effect for a decade. And the state continues to have among the lowest death rates due to firearms in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Boston is attracting national attention for its low homicide rate.
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“That is not by accident,” Senate President Karen Spilka said at the event with Giffords. “We have been vigilant in updating our laws.”
And so this latest round of updates — some to address such “advances” in technology as ghost guns, which can be created with a 3-D printer or from parts bought online — is essential just to keep pace. And this year’s answer to the bump stock — Glock switch or “sear switches” now used to modify those ghost guns — cry out for a permanent ban on sales and possession.
Earlier this month Boston police, making a traffic stop in East Boston, arrested a 23-year-old in possession of a fully loaded ghost gun complete with a switch capable of turning into a fully automatic weapon.
The number of ghost guns recovered by Boston police has multiplied from 16 in 2019 to 104 in 2022. This year so far 27 of the “privately manufactured” weapons have been recovered, according to Boston police.
But one more critical element the conference committee will need to deal with is the aftermath of yet another US Supreme Court decision — this one in 2022 that gutted a 100-year-old New York state rule on where licensed gun owners can legally carry their weapons, thus forcing states to specifically define “sensitive areas” where guns are still prohibited.
The House and Senate versions of the gun bill take different approaches, with the Senate insisting schools are already off-limits for guns (except those carried by law enforcement) but the House choosing to include schools. Both are clear on putting courthouses and state administration buildings off-limits, but the Senate would make town buildings subject to local option, which strikes us as being unduly complicated.
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Both bills seek to update the state’s “red flag” law, allowing a judge to require a gun owner to surrender their weapons if that person poses a risk to themselves or others. Currently only police or family members can request an “extreme risk protection order.” The House would add school administrators, employers, and health care providers. The Senate bill adds only health care providers who have provided services to that person within the last six months — an unnecessarily limited approach.
The State House meeting on gun violence was just hours before the latest gun-related tragedy — the discovery of the bodies of a Wilbraham mother and her 26-year-old son, who police believe were shot by her domestic partner, who then turned the gun on himself.
So these are not hypotheticals. These changes in state law actually could make a difference. They could save lives.
Yes, the bills are complicated — the House version some 126 pages, the Senate’s a more trim 35. But the conference committee has been at this for more than three months.
“We will get that done,” House Speaker Ron Mariano vowed at the Giffords event, telling reporters later, “It’s just a question of working out the details and making sure that no one feels that their issue got short [shrift].”
But time is growing short, and gun reform remains one of those contentious issues — yes, even here in reform-minded Massachusetts — that can’t simply glide through after formal sessions end.
Sure, those six conferees want to get it right. But they also have to get it done.
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After all, Spilka and Mariano have given their word — and on Beacon Hill that’s a big deal.
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.
