By Alissa Yoon
Boston University News Service
Lorna Heron’s son was murdered by gunfire. She sought to carry out his legacy during an Advocacy Day organized by the Massachusetts chapter of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, recounting a horrific story that occurred in a state that already has strict gun laws.
Advocates met on March 26 at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, then marched across Boston Common to urge legislators at the State House to hold the gun industry accountable.
“He was shot 15 times by that semiautomatic weapon,” said Heron, a health services advocate with the City of Boston, of her son. “I also found out that the last blow was by a gun, a handgun that was transported here to our beautiful Massachusetts gun law state by someone that did not have the right to own a gun here.”
Lorna Heron, right, gets some comfort from Moms Demand Action Executive Director Angela Ferrell-Zabala as Heron emotionally recounts her son’s murder.
Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action are advocating for a bill presented by state Sen. Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, which touches heavily on firearm industry accountability.
State Rep. Michael Day, D-Stoneham, House chair of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee and an author of the state’s most recent gun law — which now faces a repeal vote on the 2026 ballot — detailed last year’s gun safety efforts and expressed hope to deny repeal efforts for the sake of children, school teachers, parents, law enforcement professionals — and gun owners themselves.
Gun safety advocates seek to block effort to repeal latest Mass. law
The 2024 law bans ghost guns and firearm components; mandates live-fire training for gun license applicants; expands red flag laws to allow health care professionals to petition for firearm removal if they believe users pose an imminent threat to life; and imposes new limits on where firearms can be carried in public.
Day said the training course was implemented for new licensed gun owners so they can use it safely. He said there’s been pushback from the National Rifle Association to tear down this law.
State Rep. Michael Day, D-Stoneham, authored a bill that Gov. Maura Healey signed into law last year, requiring all guns to have serial numbers and that all new gun owners undergo live firearms training.
“If they (NRA) can knock it out in Massachusetts, they can run the country,” Day said. “We’re gonna say no in Massachusetts.”
He said lawmakers held a listening tour that occurred before the law’s passage, and they heard from the Gun Owners’ Action League. He said both parties agreed that live firearms training for new gun owners can help improve safety for everyone involved.
But Jim Wallace, executive director of Westborough-based Gun Owners’ Action League, said that distrust in legislative efforts on gun safety, saying during a telephone interview that the law only goes after lawful gun owners.
“The fact that they supposedly included people and had a listening tour was nothing but a sham,” he said. “You know we tried in vain to work with them and they just lied to us the entire time about what this bill was gonna be about.”
Wallace said that during their first few meetings, both the representatives and GOAL agreed on legislation regarding ghost guns and live firearm training. But he said he felt lied to when the legislative decisions were made in secret, away from the public’s pushback, with the general public only hearing about the bill the night before the vote.
Gun safety advocates hope to continue their efforts from the last session by blocking the repeal pushed by gun rights supporters and making progress in holding the firearm industry more accountable.
This story originally appeared in The MetroWest Daily News.
