A bill up for consideration on Beacon Hill would open the door for firearm manufacturers and distributors to be sued for the harm their products cause, igniting a debate over what gun violence exactly means.
Backers of the “Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Act” argue that the bill would create a code of conduct to “reduce the likelihood that guns end up in the wrong hands” by holding the firearm industry accountable. Opponents counter that manufacturers and distributors shouldn’t be punished for harm inflicted by those who are behind the gun at the time the violence occurs and that criminals must be prosecuted.
Under the bill, firearm industry members would be mandated to follow safeguards and business practices designed to prevent the sale or distribution of guns to people prohibited from possession under state or federal law or individuals deemed to pose a “substantial risk” of harming themselves or someone else. The “reasonable controls” would also look to restrict the sale or distribution to straw purchasers—someone who purchases or gains a gun on behalf of a third party and isn’t eligible for an exemption—or firearm traffickers.
Ruth Zakarin, chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, is leading the push for the bill with her umbrella organization, which represents over 120 member groups working to address the root causes of gun violence in the Bay State.
Zakarin argues that the firearm industry is the only industry with “broad protection from being held liable for the harms its products cause.” She notes that nine other states, all controlled by Democrats, have similar laws.
“This lack of accountability has allowed some bad actors to behave irresponsibly and put our communities at risk,” Zakarin told lawmakers on Friday. “This bill would change that.”
State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Cape Cod Republican who served 40 years with the Yarmouth Police Department, pressed Zakarin during the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security hearing.
“You mentioned gun violence many times. What is it?” Xiarhos asked.
Zakarin responded, “It is when guns are used to harm or hurt people in the Commonwealth.”
Xiarhos shared his perspective, saying his understanding of gun violence, gained over decades in law enforcement, is that “most of the deaths from people with guns are suicide. The rest, or many of the rest, are accidental.”
“There are very few that happen by people with guns,” Xiarhos added, “and those who have guns that commit crimes are mostly criminals.”
Under the proposed bill, firearm industry members include those who manufacture, distribute, import, market, or sell guns. They’d be required to take “reasonable precautions” to ensure that firearms aren’t designed, sold, or advertised in ways that promote the conversion of legal products into illegal ones or target minors or individuals prohibited from possessing guns.
A person who suffers harm due to a firearm industry member failing to follow code-of-conduct protocols could bring a civil action forward in court. The Attorney General could also civilly sue whoever in the industry the victim deems responsible for the incident.
“The ability to sue is long overdue for victims of gun violence and their families,” said Elizabeth Ryan, policy counsel for the group Every Town For Gun Safety. “The gun industry should and must face people it has harmed in court when its own bad acts are responsible for injury and death.”
Ramya Swami, policy counsel for the national organization Brady: United Against Gun Violence, pointed to a “crime gun trace report” published by the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security in 2022. The analysis found that four of the 329 firearm dealers in the Bay State were responsible for “25% of the problem,” Swami said.
Advocates are backing the bill amid ongoing tensions with Second Amendment proponents. State Sen. Peter Durant describes recent firearms legislation as “one of the most significant infringements on the rights of law-abiding gun owners that we’ve seen in Massachusetts in decades.” Durant refers to Chapter 135, a landmark firearms law enacted last year by Beacon Hill Democrats and Gov. Maura Healey.
Durant, a Spencer Republican, is pursuing bills to repeal that legislation, in part or in full. Regarding the Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Act, he expressed concern that the bill seeks to punish manufacturers for how someone uses their products.
“That’s the biggest difficulty I have here,” he said at Friday’s hearing. “We don’t do that in so many other industries. If someone takes a car and drives through a crowd of people, we don’t sue Ford for that. We prosecute the crimes where they occur.”
Citing Massachusetts’ strict gun laws, gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson relocated to Tennessee in 2023 after moving from its longtime Bay State home. The company had been located in Springfield, Massachusetts, since the mid-19th century, but officials said legislative proposals would prohibit them from manufacturing certain weapons.
State Rep. David Linsky, a Natick Democrat, argued that in “virtually every other industry,” individuals can sue companies over business practices.
“If General Motors makes a defective car, you can sue General Motors,” he said. “If one of those industries uses a deceptive advertising method… you can sue.”
Linsky drew jeers from the public gallery during Friday’s hearing when he said statistics show Massachusetts as the “safest state… as far as gun violence goes.”
John Green, education director for the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts, appealed for Bay Staters and gun control advocates to “stop referring to it as gun violence.”
“There is no such thing as gun violence,” Green said. “If there were, there would also have to be car and truck violence, knife violence, medicine violence.”
“Let’s admit to the fact: Violence perpetrated with a gun, that is what it is called,” he added. “Using such terminology is making smart people sound ignorant.”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/01/massachusetts-gun-violence-debate-erupts-at-state-house-over-bill-to-punish-industry-members/
