Massachusetts Puts Tough Gun Measures Into Effect

BOSTON —  Massachusetts put the nation’s strictest gun regulations into effect Monday, using consumer-protection rules to ban cheap Saturday night specials and requiring childproof locks on any gun sold in the state.

The state will contact gun manufacturers and sellers within 15 days to inform them of the regulations, which also require safety warnings with each gun, tamper-resistant serial numbers and indicators on semiautomatic handguns that tell if a bullet is in the chamber.

“Massachusetts now has the most comprehensive and toughest gun laws in the nation,” said John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence Inc.

Group Decries Regulations

The Gun Owners’ Action League said the new enforcement is unnecessary because strict federal and state regulations are already in place.

Also Monday, the Maryland House approved legislation requiring built-in locks on all new guns sold.

The bill has already passed the Senate, and the governor is eager to sign it. No other state has approved such a measure.

Opponents said the locks would actually embolden criminals who might have a better chance of taking a victim by surprise.

The Massachusetts action came about in an unprecedented legal maneuver, when then-Atty. Gen. Scott Harshbarger wrote the rules in 1997, bypassing the Legislature. He relied instead on the attorney general’s broad powers to regulate consumer products. Those powers do not specifically mention guns.

Thirty-four other states have passed legislation that would allow them to regulate handguns as they would other consumer products, but Massachusetts is the first to actually impose such regulations.

Atty. Gen. Thomas Reilly said investigators will begin spot checks of gun stores within 15 days. Reilly said he is applying consumer protection standards to guns, just as the state already does with toys, automobiles and other products.

The Gun Owners’ Action League said that educational programs sponsored by gun owners have succeeded in significantly reducing firearm accidents, despite an increase in gun ownership.

League spokesman Kevin Sowyrda accused the attorney general of exploiting the issue to increase his own popularity.

“This is an assault on veterans and an assault on gun owners,” he said.

The National Rifle Assn. declined to comment.

The new regulations go further than changes announced last month by gun maker Smith & Wesson.

The company, under threat of a federal lawsuit, agreed to provide external safety locks on all of its handguns within 60 days and built-in locks within two years.

One of the Massachusetts requirements is that serial numbers be tamper-resistant, either placed inside the gun, such as in the barrel, or imprinted so that they can be read only with an infrared detector.

Measure Includes Gun Lock Provision

Other requirements include one that the gun have a lock, such as an attached key-operated lock or a combination lock built into the gun that blocks the barrel, and another that semiautomatic handguns have a so-called load indicator, which tells if a bullet is in the chamber.

A Superior Court judge struck down Harshbarger’s rules in 1998. But the Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court, ruled in June that Harshbarger had acted within his authority when he “sought to take preventive action as to defective handguns.”

The court returned the case to Superior Court for further proceedings, and in December it, too, ruled in favor of the regulations.