Massachusetts Question 9: What a Yes or No Vote Does

On November 3, 2026, Massachusetts voters decide whether to keep Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, the gun law Governor Maura Healey signed on July 25, 2024. It's the last of nine questions on the ballot.

The wording trips people up, so here it is plainly: a Yes vote keeps the law, and a No vote repeals it.

Election day November 3, 2026 · checked against official sources on October 12, 2026

What your vote does

Yes: Keeps the law

“A YES VOTE would keep in place the law, which increases the regulation of firearms, including ghost guns, machine guns, and assault-style weapons.”

— Secretary of the Commonwealth, 2026 Information for Voters: Question 9

No: Repeals the law

“A NO VOTE would repeal this law.”

— Secretary of the Commonwealth, 2026 Information for Voters: Question 9

The question on your ballot reads:

“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?”

— Secretary of the Commonwealth, 2026 Information for Voters: Question 9

When would a repeal take effect?

Chapter 135 is in effect now. Governor Healey signed an emergency preamble on October 2, 2024, which put the law into effect right away, so the petition for this vote couldn't put it on hold in the meantime.

If No wins, the law is repealed 30 days after the election, on December 3, 2026. There's one condition: the No votes have to add up to at least 30% of all the ballots cast in the election, counting people who skipped Question 9, not just the ones who answered it.

Until a repeal takes effect, the law applies in full, including any deadline that falls before then.

“if it shall not be approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon, it shall, at the expiration of thirty days after such election, be thereby repealed; but no such law shall be held to be disapproved if the negative vote is less than thirty per cent of the total number of ballots cast at such state election.”

— Mass. Const. amend. art. 48, The Referendum, pt. III, § 4 (as amended by art. 81, § 5)

The October 28 registration deadline

Chapter 135 requires firearms to be serialized and registered through the state's online MIRCS portal. The state has set the deadline as October 28, 2026. That's six days before the vote and five weeks before a repeal could take effect, so the vote doesn't change the deadline. Only the state can do that.

“Firearms must be serialized and registered by October 28, 2026.”

— EOPSS: Firearm Modernization Law Information

What Chapter 135 changed

The law runs 159 sections. These are the main changes, from the Attorney General's official summary in the voter guide:

Red flag orders: school administrators and licensed health care providers can now ask a court for an Extreme Risk Protection Order, and a court issuing a harassment prevention order can also order guns and licenses surrendered.
Ghost guns: penalties for having, making or transferring an untraceable gun, including 3D-printed ones. Every firearm except antiques and relics needs a serial number, and so do unfinished frames and receivers that can readily be finished.
Age: you have to be 21 to own a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun.
Machine guns and silencers: "machine gun" now covers bump stocks, trigger cranks, Glock switches and auto sears, and "silencer" now includes the parts used to build one.
Assault-style firearms: spells out what counts as one, and when people who already own one, or large-capacity magazines, can keep them. The state also has to review its lists of banned and approved guns.
Where you can carry: no guns in government buildings, polling places or schools, with some exceptions, plus clearer rules for carrying in cars and ATVs.
Licensing: new applicants take State Police training and a test, and licensing officers can see more records, including earlier licenses and denied petitions for involuntary commitment.
Reporting: up to six months in jail for a second failure to report a lost or stolen gun.
Other changes: a public dashboard of gun data, two study commissions, self-defense spray permits for teenagers, and a new crime for firing a gun and hitting a building that's in use.

For the rules as they stand today, see Massachusetts gun laws.

What each side says

These are the official 150-word arguments printed in the state's voter guide, written by each side. The state prints them as written and doesn't vouch for them. Source: Secretary of the Commonwealth, 2026 Information for Voters: Question 9

In favor (vote 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. Critical elements of the 2024 law are actively being implemented; they are already helping keep our communities safe.

To continue driving the rate of gun violence even lower, we must maintain the strong policies included in this existing law. A YES vote will preserve this law, safeguard important progress, and allow us to continue the work of eradicating gun violence. Repealing it would make everyone in Massachusetts less safe.

Written by Ned Notis-McConarty, Vote Yes for a Safe Massachusetts

Against (vote No)

A No vote on Question 9 repeals an unnecessary reinvention of state firearms law. 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, pulling officers away from investigating violent crime to plow through piles of administrative paperwork. 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. Vote no on Question 9. Demand common-sense, transparent legislation focused on violent criminals, not limiting citizens' civil rights.

Written by Toby Leary, The Civil Rights Coalition

Common questions

Does anything change before the vote?

No. Chapter 135 is the law today, and it stays in effect at least until December 3, 2026, even if No wins.

What happens if Yes wins?

Nothing changes. The law stays as it is.

What happens if No wins?

As long as the No votes are at least 30% of all ballots cast, the law is repealed on December 3, 2026. The ballot materials don't say how the state would handle licenses, registrations or rules already put in place under it. We'll update this page and our Massachusetts gun law page as soon as the state says.

Why does Yes keep the law?

This is a veto referendum, not a new proposal. The question asks whether you approve of a law that's already on the books, so approving it (Yes) keeps it and rejecting it (No) repeals it.

Sources

Not legal advice, and no endorsement. Chambered doesn't take a side on ballot questions. We'll update this page with the result after the election.