The Senate plans to produce and tackle its own gun safety bill in the fall after lawmakers return from their August recess, Senate President Karen Spilka told the Herald on Monday.
A House omnibus gun bill has found itself jammed up in a procedural dispute with the Senate since it was first introduced in late June. And with House Speaker Ronald Mariano backing off a push to get that bill passed before August, Spilka said her branch “will be working over the summer and into the fall on a Senate version of a gun safety bill.”
“[We] plan on doing that in the fall. We had planned on that in the beginning and we continue to plan on that,” Spilka said in a phone interview. “I’m looking forward to having hearings on all the gun bills and working with the senators on putting together a very strong gun safety bill.”
The Ashland Democrat said she is “proud” of Massachusetts’ gun laws.
“But I believe that we can improve and it’s important for us to stay ahead and be a leader in the nation on gun safety,” she said.
Spilka did not say what a Senate gun safety proposal could look like but the House bill bans carrying firearms in most public places without express permission and targets the rise of ghost guns.
The House bill also establishes an “enhanced tracing system” to track guns used during a crime, modernizes firearms registration systems, and makes firearms data available to academics and policymakers, among other things.
Spilka also pointed to early education and care reform as a topic the Senate could cover once lawmakers are back from their month-long break.
