It’s pistol league night — a warm September Monday — at the Falmouth Rod & Gun Club on Cape Cod.
Members of the pistol team and the visiting team, from the Shawme Fish & Game Club in Sandwich, are trickling into the club’s main room.
A moose head and large fish hang over the open stairwell where the teams make their way to the basement range.
Falmouth club member Carl Simons takes demonstration shots at a round target, filling the six-lane range with the crack-crack sound of .22 caliber gunfire.
“That, as I said, is a semiautomatic," he says. His German-made target pistol is classified as a semiautomatic weapon, because it loads a new round after each shot. “So now there's another round in the chamber, but I have to pull the trigger every single time.”
Simons arrived carrying a handful of stickers that say “No on 9,” urging voters to cast their ballots against Question 9 in the Nov. 3 election.
Question 9 asks if the state should keep a wide-ranging gun law approved by the Democratic majority on Beacon Hill and signed by Gov. Maura Healey in 2024.
“To me, it's an invasion of my civil rights,” he says. “Your legal gun owners are not the problems. If we were the problems, you would know it, because there's so many guns and so much ammunition owned across not only Massachusetts, but across the United States.”
Gun-rights supporters successfully petitioned to get the referendum on the ballot.
A “no” vote would repeal the gun-law update, known as Chapter 135.
A “yes” vote would keep the law.
Among other things, the law allows police to access mental health commitment petitions filed about someone seeking a gun license. It requires nearly all guns, except antiques, to have serial numbers and be registered. And it expands the red flag law, to remove guns from someone deemed an extreme safety risk.
Question 9 asks the public to decide where the right balance lies between civil rights and public safety.
Cheri Armstrong, who taught elementary school for 17 years and now works at a high school on Cape Cod, supports the law.
“I think we can all agree, but particularly educators who are at the forefront of gun violence with school shootings, that we want to protect our students,” she said in an interview. “And quite honestly, we'd like to protect ourselves as well, and anyone else that is here in the school environment.”
The updated red flag law adds school administrators and healthcare providers to the list of people who can seek a temporary court order for someone to surrender their firearms. The Massachusetts Teachers Association is one of the biggest donors trying to keep the law in place.
Carl Simons, from the gun club, said he objects to red-flag provisions because “you can now take away property … from a citizen, without any charges, or any due process, because somebody said so.”
A red flag order lasts up to 10 days without a court hearing; after a hearing, it lasts up to a year.
The law also requires that nearly all firearms, including 3-D printed guns, have a serial number, thereby banning what are called “ghost guns.”
Jim Weixel, a member of the Shawme Fish & Game Club, said gun registration impinges on the right to free speech.
“People don't have to register your books and things like that … and it's unclear what that registry is for,” he said. “Only the law-abiding citizens are going to register firearms.”
But the Yes on 9 committee counters that whether criminals ignore the law is irrelevant.
“That's a worldview that feels very problematic,” committee Chair Ruth Zakarin said. “We don't throw out regulations because some people don't follow them. Some people run red lights. That doesn't mean we should get rid of any red lights whatsoever.”
Police officers, who both use firearms and confront shooters, can be deeply divided on gun control.
In New Bedford, Police Chief Jason Thody supports several major parts of the law, including those on ghost guns, red flags, mental health, and a ban on devices that convert a semi-automatic weapon to automatic.
The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association has not taken a position on Question 9, but the director said it may, pending a discussion by the board.
Voters have their homework cut out for them. For some, that last ballot question may not be an easy choice.
