Date: May 28, 2025

Good morning, Deputy General Counsel Melander and members of the Board. My name is John Briare, representing The Civil Rights Coalition—a non-partisan Ballot Committee founded by over 100,000 Massachusetts residents, including veterans, retired law enforcement, and individuals from every walk of life.

We’re here today to ask for the Suspension or Delay of the firearm registration and serialization sections of Chapter 135 until the people vote on it in November 2026.

We realize this request may sound extra ordinary.  But it is not a symbolic ask. It’s based on sound legal, ethical, and practical concerns as detailed in the written testimony.

Chapter 135’s firearm registration and serialization mandates are the core reason we initiated this repeal effort. What many people may not realize is that our state constitution does not allow us to repeal individual sections — so to strike down these dangerous provisions, we had to repeal the whole law. That’s how the “People’s Veto” works.

We understand EOPSS has been put in a tough spot, tasked with enforcing a poorly written, 116-page law that Governor Healey kept barely alive by declaring a so called “state emergency” to block its constitutional suspension by our group.

But we need to all be honest: this law criminalizes honest citizens—not for acts of violence, but for paperwork errors, lack of internet access, or owning something that’s suddenly, retroactively reclassified as illegal.

Take the FID card holders who’ve lawfully owned semi-automatic shotguns for decades. Now, they must obtain an LTC—many can’t qualify— and register or serialize their firearm – and now face felony charges. There is no grandfathering, and the process demands self-incrimination—a clear violation of the Fifth Amendment. It’s a bureaucratic trap set up to criminally entrap him by the Legislature and Governor. 

Or consider the digital-only MIRCS portal. According to publicly available data:

35% of low-income households, 20% of seniors, 12% of rural residents and 1 in 3 disabled individuals lack reliable broadband. That’s not a small group—that’s tens of thousands of citizens set up to fail by design.

This violates Title II of the ADA, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the Age Discrimination Act.

Imagine an 80-year-old widower in Springfield fined $1,000 because he can’t register a rifle he’s owned for 40 years. He has no LTC, no internet, and no one to help him. That’s not justice. It’s bureaucratic cruelty.

Meanwhile, the ATF only requires serialization of transferred home-built firearms. But Massachusetts now requires serialization before assembly, even for personal use. That’s federal overreach and invites Supremacy Clause challenges.

And the privacy risks? Catastrophic. In 2012, The Journal News published New York gun owners’ names and addresses, leading to home invasions, stolen firearms, and exposed retired officers’ homes (The New York Times, Jan. 6, 2013). Only when the paper’s staff data was leaked did they back down 27 days later.

The state’s registration database, housed in CJIS, effectively lumps law-abiding gun owners into the same system used to track violent criminals—murderers, rapists, and repeat offenders. This isn’t just bureaucratic overreach; it’s a dangerous betrayal of trust.

One breach… one Freedom of Information request… and criminals could have a treasure map to every home with registered firearms. We’re not being dramatic—we’re being honest. This is how lives are lost.

The state is building what could only be called a “Criminal DoorDash”—a menu of homes to target, served up to those who don’t follow the law.

And make no mistake, it will be breached. Every major database is eventually hacked. And when it is, innocent people won’t just lose privacy, they could lose their lives.

And here’s the greatest irony:

Criminals won’t comply. They won’t register. They won’t serialize. They’ll keep doing what they’ve always done—obtaining illegal firearms through theft or trafficking.  They will murder, rape and pillage, while law abiding citizens are left defenseless. These regulations will not stop them.

What Chapter 135 does is punish those who follow the law, who believe in the system, and who trusted their government not to change the rules mid-game.  If the Legislature sent you a law, in the name of safety, requiring registration of religious beliefs or social media passwords, would you enforce it? I would hope not.

EOPSS has previously suspended or delayed other sections of this law because they were unfunded, unworkable, or impossible to implement. We’re asking for consistency and common sense: do the same thing here.

The Second Amendment—like all rights—deserves equal respect. It is the right that defends all others.

We urge you: Suspend 501 CMR 19.00 and 20.00 until the people decide this law’s fate in 2026.

Let the people speak.

Thank you.