Area gun enthusiasts and experts have their criticisms of the new state firearms law, but it appears most are onboard with the prohibition of 3-D-printed and unserialized “ghost guns,” saying they have no place in Massachusetts or the United States.

Gov. Maura Healey last month signed into law a sweeping gun bill that has already prompted a lawsuit from the Gun Owners Action League, a Massachusetts affiliate of the National Rifle Association, which insists the new legislation is unconstitutional. The suit asks the federal court to issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing the “burdensome licensing regimes on the possession and carry of firearms for self defense.”

Donald Graves, a Franklin County Sportsmen’s Club member, has been tasked with coordinating the collection of signatures on a petition to oppose it. Opponents would reportedly need at least 37,000 signatures to put a repeal referendum on the 2026 state ballot.

Graves also said he dislikes the law’s requirement that gun license applicants must complete live-fire training. He does, however, support the ban on using 3D printers to make firearms and on “ghost guns,” untraceable homemade weapons created by assembling pieces that are sold together in a kit or separately.

“I think that is common sense,” he said.

That sentiment is shared by others, including Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan.

“When new technology or things pop up I think we need to be nimble enough to address them,” he said, adding that 3D and ghost guns are an attempt to circumvent a system of firearm registration and required training.

Donelan said he does not think the new law will increase the number people locked up in the jail he oversees, as he tends not to get many inmates sentenced for firearms violations.

The sheriff said he also supports the law’s live-fire training requirement and the expansion of the state’s red flag laws to allow police, health care workers and school officials to alert the courts if they believe someone with access to guns is a danger and should have their firearms at least temporarily taken away. The new law also criminalizes possessing bump stocks and trigger cranks and requires an advisory board to provide a list of prohibited weapons.

Bump stocks were thrust into the national spotlight in 2017 after Stephen Craig Paddock used one to fire at least 1,000 rounds in rapid succession during a mass shooting that killed 60 people in Las Vegas. They were banned by the U.S. Justice Department, but that ban was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2024 for lacking a legislative basis. Trigger cranks enable a similar function as bump stocks.

Donelan said the new law is an attempt by legislators to be proactive and prevent a catastrophe from happening. He said legislation like this is part of the reason Massachusetts has one of the lowest gun violence rates in the nation.

“There is a correlation,” he said.

Donelan’s issue with the new law pertains to its prohibition on anyone younger than 21 owning semi-automatic rifles or shotguns, which he said could negatively affect his fellow members of the hunting community. He said he hunted deer as a teenager and now goes duck hunting with his family.

“Where I … part with the people from Boston is when you start to put restrictions on the firearms used by hunters,” he said.

This was the same feeling for Susannah Whipps, who represents the 2nd Franklin District as the only unaffiliated member of the state House of Representatives. She was one of the 33 “nays” in the House on a 124-33 vote, while the bill flew through the Senate by a tally of 35 to 5. Eight Democrats joined all Republicans in opposition.

“As a gun owner who is proficient, safe and licensed, I was disappointed with this bill,” Whipps told the Greenfield Recorder in a statement. “I don’t feel it was necessary and from the contacts I received from constituents, they didn’t think it was necessary either. I also don’t think that it will address gun violence in the Commonwealth.

“The prohibitions and barriers placed on out of state hunters, business owner[s] who live outside of Massachusetts and seasonal residents are not terribly welcoming,” she added. “The added burdens placed on businesses, sportsmen and women and law-abiding citizens will have zero effect on violent crime. Also, there’s no money attached to this bill which makes the work of implementing regulations and issuing licenses even more slowed than it is now.”

Whipps also said wait times for licenses to carry and renewals take several months longer than in years past.

“I would guess for every contact in favor of this bill I received 50 in opposition,” she wrote.

State Rep. Michael Day, a Stoneham Democrat and the law’s chief architect, is on record saying he believes the law will withstand legal scrutiny. The Boston Herald is reporting that Toby Leary, who co-founded Cape Gun Works in Hyannis, is working to collect tens of thousands of signatures by late October to suspend enforcement of the new law. He filed paperwork with the state’s campaign finance office to set up “The Civil Rights Coalition,” which is prepared to tap a network of hundreds of gun stores, firearms groups and sportsmen’s clubs to get the signatures necessary to temporarily shelve the statute.

Alan Lambert, a former police officer who owns Crescent Moon Firearms in Turners Falls, said existing laws in “the anti-firearm commonwealth of Massachusetts” have already cut his profits by nearly 90%.

“I mean, I’ve always been an advocate of people that want firearms or ammunition to have their backgrounds checked and they should be [upstanding] citizens, but I also feel that government is getting way too big on this issue, way too big,” he said. “There is no reason why a law-abiding citizen with a clean record cannot have whatever firearm they want in Massachusetts or on the national level, that’s the way I feel.”

Despite this, however, he said he supports the ban on 3D-printed guns, ghost guns, bump stocks and trigger cranks. He also supports red flags laws, as long as they are not abused by law enforcement.

“I would hate to have someone come to my establishment and look for some firearms or ammunition and have, shall we say, a tainted past,” said Lambert, who also teaches a license-to-carry class.

Leon “Lee” Laster, another certified firearms instructor, also said state officials’ hearts are “kind of in the right spot” but the law “needed way more time on the drawing board.” He said it is beneficial to require live-fire and deescalation training and to provide suicide-prevention awareness, but it is ludicrous to ban semi-automatic shotguns, especially in hunting communities.

Laster, a U.S. Marine infantry veteran and former Montague Police Officer who opened The Western Massachusetts Training & Education Academy in Millers Falls in April, said restrictive gun laws do nothing to curb gun violence or deaths.

“Do we have a gun problem or do we have a people problem?” he said. “We’re addressing the wrong thing.”

Laster also said he is “a little nervous” about red flag laws because they can be exploited by vindictive people and law enforcement. He does, however, support bans on ghost guns, 3D-printed guns, bump stocks and trigger cranks. But he said strict gun control flies in the face of American ideals, many of which were birthed in Massachusetts and other parts of the East Coast.

“This is where we fought England for our independence,” he said.

Malisa Younger, a certified firearms instructor and the secretary of the Woodsman Rifle and Pistol Club in Athol, questions the gun knowledge of the lawmakers who drafted the bill and voted in favor of it. She said it would behoove the government to instead address the flawed way this country deals with mental health. She mentioned that she doubts the law will survive legal scrutiny.

“If it does, something is really wrong in our government,” she said. “It’s unconstitutional, what they’ve done. And they’re making people afraid of firearms, without any education. Firearms are not dangerous – it’s the people holding them that are dangerous.”

Younger, like Laster, said this new law will not achieve what it is advertised to.

“I guess [club members] are frustrated as well that it affects law-abiding citizens. It doesn’t really do anything to curb criminal activity,” she said. “If you think about it, what law has a criminal followed? Criminals, they’re not going to have a license to carry and they’re going to get a firearm one way or another.”