One Ballot Measure for 2026
For the full list of referendums we’re tracking, see our home page.
Firearm Regulations Referendum
On Ballot: November 3, 2026
See Ballotpedia page for more information and updates.
This is a “veto referendum.” That is, the legislature passed the law, but opponents gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot. Despite its name, a yes vote isn’t for a veto but for the law itself, thus avoiding confusion about what yes and no mean.
The law provides:
- prohibiting assault-style firearms (as defined in law);
- allowing school administrators and licensed healthcare providers to request that a court issue an Extreme Risk Protection Order; and
- permitting courts to order firearm surrender when issuing Harassment Prevention Orders.
It also provides for developing an electronic tracking system, requiring safety certificates to obtain firearm permits, and mandating serial numbers for firearms. We take no position on those features, because our interest isn’t with firearm policy as a whole, but on how it can relate to war, along with gun-assisted suicides that touch most of our issues.
Mass Shootings: A Type of War
Assault-style firearms are rapid-fire, initially designed for combat use, and have commonly featured in mass-shooting incidents.
Extreme Risk Protection Orders, also known as a red flag law, allow specific authorities who know of someone being a danger to themselves or others to intervene.
Recently in Maine, for example, there was an October 2023 mass shooting that killed 18 people and injured 13. The shooter was had a recent history of brain injury and serious mental health concerns.
A group of shooting victims’ family members and survivors filed a lawsuit against the United States government over the Army’s failure to act on the knowledge it had in order to prevent the violent outburst. One of the group’s lawyers said at a press conference:
Card was discharged from a psychiatric hospital on the condition that the Army remove his weapons. That never happened. And when Card’s best friend and fellow reservist warned their superiors that he thought Card was going to “snap and commit a mass shooting” six weeks before the tragedy no action was taken.
Accordingly, Maine passed a red flag law in 2025 by a wide margin.
This is another way mass shootings and other gun deaths are connected to war, in some cases. People are trained in the use of military-grade weapons, then put into situations that may cause injury and trauma, then expected to reintegrate into society. Adding poorly regulated access to similar military-style weapons makes for a still more dangerous mix.
An even better way to prevent such tragedies would be not to send people into situations known to create serious mental health risks in the first place.
Short of that type of deeper-rooted prevention, the chance to remove access to dangerous weapons from someone showing warning signs may still prevent the next potential tragedy from occurring.
Suicide Prevention
While “physician-assisted” suicide is a normal euphemism for euthanasia, gun-assisted suicides follow much of the same anti-life set of ideas and should also be prevented.
Because excessive suicides are a direct result of participation in other kinds of killing, preventing such suicides in the hope of getting better healing options is one of the ways of trying to undo the impact of socially-approved violence. See:
Suicide Prevention and Other Kinds of Killing
Military veterans are especially vulnerable to suicides and more inclined than others to use guns for the purpose because of their familiarity with them. See:
Heartbreakingly Common: Suicide Among Veterans
Tragedy Spreads: The Impact of Veterans’ Suicides on Families
If you know of any more referendums in Massachusetts that we should cover, including ones at the city or county level, please send information to:
referendums @ consistent-life.org
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or call 816 –
753 – 2057 (Central Time)
Project Coordinator, Rachel MacNair
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