A wide-ranging gun reform bill remains locked up in secret negotiations on Beacon Hill even as state lawmakers marked gun violence prevention month with former Congresswoman Gabby Gifford during an event Tuesday at the State House.
Legislators in Massachusetts have expressed support for reining in what they argue is the proliferation of “ghost guns,” or untraceable homemade weapons, and mechanisms that turn semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic ones.
But two competing bills that have separately passed the House and Senate this session diverged enough in the details that they were sent to a six-member panel of legislators to find a compromise. That group has worked on the bill for the past three months, at first in public meetings but later behind closed doors.
Both Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano declined to delve into what may be holding up negotiations led by Rep. Michael Day, a Stoneham Democrat, and Sen. Cindy Creem, a Newton Democrat.
“They’re both very complicated, deep bills, and they’re working hard,” Spilka told reporters.
In a reference to the gun reform bill during a speech to advocates, Mariano said lawmakers “will get that done.” Talking to reporters later on, he said negotiators have “made progress and they’re tying up some loose ends.”
“But listen, we all want the same thing, so it’s just a question of working out the details and making sure that no one feels that their issue is short-shifted,” he said. “We have two committees of intelligent people who are familiar with all the issues, constitutional and in Massachusetts, and so I’m confident it’ll get done.”
Mariano declined to dive into any potential hang-ups, telling reporters he is “not daily sitting in on the conference committee” and only discusses negotiations with Day “in generalizations.”
“I don’t talk in specifics. I don’t micromanage whether or not specific things are in the bill. I know what the outline of the bill was and as long as it’s consistent with that, we’re fine,” he said.
House lawmakers passed their version of the bill in October and the Senate followed suit months later in February.
Spilka and Mariano spoke Tuesday at an event featuring Giffords, the former congresswoman who was shot during a January 2011 public event in Arizona in which six other people were killed.
Giffords has since become a leading advocate for gun reform, and in a speech at the State House, said lives can “change so quickly.”
“Mine did when I was shot, but I never gave up hope. I chose to make a new start, to move ahead. Do not look back. I’m relearning so many things, how to walk, how to talk, and I’m fighting to make the country safer. It can be so difficult. Losses hurt, setbacks are hard, but I tell myself, move ahead,” she said.
