With the Bay State wracked by “unprecedented gun violence,” a revamped gun violence reduction bill now before the state House would give county prosecutors and local law enforcement new and effective tools to fight it, a Western Massachusetts district attorney said Tuesday.
The bill is a “thoughtful and measured” response to that public policy challenge, Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni told MassLive after an appearance before a joint hearing of the House Ways & Means Committee and House members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.
The legislation, which backers say will stem the flow of illegal firearms into the commonwealth, expand the state’s assault weapons ban, and limit the ability to carry guns in certain spaces, “effectively modernizes our gun laws to keep up with current issues,” Gulluni said.
The House is expected to vote later this month on the revamped bill sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairperson Michael S. Day, D-31st Middlesex. House Democratic leaders rolled out the bill, which faced significant headwinds in an earlier form, last week.
In a brief appearance before lawmakers, Gulluni highlighted language in the bill requiring that all firearms frames or receivers, more widely known as “ghost guns” be serialized, making it easier for them to be tracked. The currently untraceable weapons have proven to be a bane for law enforcement because the parts are easily accessible for people who otherwise cannot legally own a firearm.
Gulluni told MassLive Tuesday that his office has recovered “dozens” of the weapons, which have “become very commonplace in the Springfield area.”
In November 2020, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security added “privately made firearm” and “ghost gun” as options in its reporting tool that monitors guns used in crimes each year. The office reported 181 privately made firearms seized in 2021 and 316 privately made firearms in 2022, MassLive previously reported.
Gulluni also said he supported language in the bill that would create a new criminal charge for someone who fires a gun into a dwelling.
Under existing law, violators can be charged with assault with a dangerous weapon — which is more difficult to prove because it requires prosecutors to show that someone deliberately intended to do so, Gulluni said.
“And that’s very difficult to do because often, and what makes it so dangerous is folks are shooting into buildings to dwellings with the interest of intimidating a particular person, someone who might be inside but they don’t know, they’re shooting indiscriminately into a house,” he told MassLive. “So this specific charge …makes it easier to prove and it provides a statutory penalty structure that is more appropriate for the nature of this offense. This terrorizes people. And again, as I spoke about, you know, it really undermines one feeling safe in his or her own home.”
