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  • 2016-07-21 (xsd:date)
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  • Massachusetts Just Banned the Sale of All Semi-Automatic Rifles (en)
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  • A month after the June 2016 mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub that left 49 victims dead, Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts announced her department would be stepping up enforcement of a state ban on copycat assault weapons. Predictably, this move by the Attorney General lead to the publication of articles with headlines such as This State Just Banned the Sale of ALL Semi-Auto Rifles, Effective Immediately, leaving readers with the mistaken impression that Massachusetts had just implemented a new law prohibiting the sale of all semi-automatic rifles. In fact, that prohibition has been the law in Massachusetts since 1994. The roots of this issue were planted with the Federal Assault Weapons Ban passed by the U.S. Congress in 1994, which included a prohibition on the manufacture, transfer, and possession of new assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines (excluding those already in lawful possession at the time of the law's enactment). Semi-automatic firearms such as the AR-70, AR-15, TEC-9, and all AK models were deemed to be assault weapons under the law, and the future manufacture of such firearms (as well as any copies or duplicates of them) for civilian use was outlawed. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban had a ten-year sunset provision, and that law accordingly expired in 2004. However, Massachusetts enacted a similar ban at the state level that included no sunset provision, so that law remains in effect today. The current issue in Massachusetts is that the existing law has long banned the sale of firearms such as the Colt AR-15 and the Kalishnikov AK-47, as well as copies and duplicates of such weapons. But Attorney General Healey maintains that firearm manufacturers have for years been evading Massachusetts law by making minor modifications to their assault weapons and claiming that the modified versions are state-compliant and not covered by the law: On 19 July 2016, Healey issued an enforcement notice clarifying what constitutes a copy or duplicate weapon under the existing: law In her announcement of the enforcement notice, Healey stated that the updated guidelines would not be applied to any weapons bought or sold prior to 20 July 2016: Critics have contended that the issuance of the updated guidelines will have little effect and was primarily motivated by Healey's interest in appearing tough on gun crimes ahead of a possible 2018 gubernatorial run. (en)
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