GOAL FILES PUBLIC RECORD REQUEST WITH STATE POLICE
Reciprocity is one of the brass rings of Second Amendment advocacy. National reciprocity could likely be the fundamental change that would ensure your rights are the same across the United States – not subject to fifty different sets of laws that could potentially contain provisions that could land you in legal jeopardy. Massachusetts is one such state. Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024 made Massachusetts one of the most unfriendly states to gun owners – especially those who do not live in the Commonwealth and want to hunt here, compete, or just enjoy a range day.
One ray of “hope” in the Commonwealth’s new gun laws however, is the new version of MGL ch. 140 § 129C(l) charges the Colonel of the State Police to release a “list of states with substantially similar requirements to those for the Commonwealth or a Firearm Identification Card under section 129C and a hunting license under section 11 of Chapter 131…” This law has been in place for 2 years, yet no list has ever been released.
In response to this lack of information, on February 26th, 2026, GOAL submitted a public records request to the State Police to obtain copies of public records that pertain to this requirement in order to get an understanding as to where the list stands or if there is even any intention of releasing one. The ten business days allowed for a response have since passed and no response; leading to GOAL submitting an appeal to the Secretary of the Commonwealth for non-responsiveness on Friday, March 13th. Our appeal was approved and a letter was sent to the State Police today, March 17th, directing them to respond to our inquiry.
GOAL is not trying to attack the State Police or even highlight any sort of evasiveness on their part. This matter is simply an example of one of the fundamental flaws of Chapter 135: the Legislature set up gun owners to fail and it set up the state agencies assigned to administer the law to fail as well.
This is due to a number of issues but specifically in no small part to the confusing language used in the law as well as the lack of funding for implementation. In order to circumvent the Governor’s ability to scratch out certain provisions of the law if there is a funding source attached to them; called a “line-item veto.” These “unfunded mandates” often push state agencies to their limits, usually at the cost of diminishing their ability to provide the service they’ve been mandated to provide. In this case, the State Police has been tasked with massive increases in their duties surrounding firearms licensing and enforcement, with no increases in their resources leaving them understaffed, underfunded and under prioritized.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts continues to show how little it values the civil rights of its citizens.
