Gun News

Massachusetts to Launch Online Gun Registration & Serialization Systems in October — Will History Repeat Itself?

Firearms Gun Registration

Massachusetts is preparing to roll out sweeping new mandates for gun owners. According to the Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL), the state’s long-delayed online portals for firearm registration and serialization are expected to go live in October 2025. Once activated, these systems trigger a strict timeline: gun owners will have one year to comply, while new residents and non-residents face deadlines as short as seven days.

Under Chapter 135, Sections 157 and 158, every firearm possessed, manufactured, or assembled in the Commonwealth must be logged in the state’s MIRCS Firearms Licensing Portal. Draft regulations make clear that the definition of “firearm” has been broadened to cover not just pistols, rifles, and shotguns, but also frames, receivers, and unfinished frames or receivers.

What the New Rules Require

The registration rules (501 CMR 19.00) require gun owners to report personal and firearm details, including acquisition date and source, through the MIRCS portal. Deadlines vary:

New residents: 60 days.
Dealers, gunsmiths, manufacturers, distributors: 7 days.
Heirs: 60 days after inheritance.
Privately made firearms (PMFs): 7 days after assembly.

The serialization rules (501 CMR 20.00) mandate that all unserialized firearms and components be engraved, cast, or otherwise permanently marked with a unique serial number issued by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS). Standards are strict:

Depth: ≥ .003 inches.
Print size: ≥ 1/16 inch.
Non-metal frames must embed a metal plate with the serial number.

Compliance deadlines are short:

Existing firearms: must be serialized by October 2, 2026.
New residents: 7 days.
Heirs: 60 days.
Dealers and manufacturers: 7 days after acquisition.

GOAL warns the system may even allow people to register firearms they cannot legally possess in Massachusetts, creating what many see as a bureaucratic trap!!!

Massachusetts Registration & Serialization Systems Coming – Here is What You Need to Know

GOAL has been made aware that the Massachusetts web-based systems for registration and serialization mandates should be online sometime in October 2025…https://t.co/oHmNRi7Tm7 pic.twitter.com/mFZUqXlSvi

— GOAL (@GOALupdate) September 17, 2025

History Shows Registration Fails

While Massachusetts lawmakers are treating this as a new step for “public safety,” gun owners point to history showing registration mandates routinely collapse.

In New Jersey, after the 2018 magazine ban, law enforcement confirmed through a FOIA request that not a single standard capacity magazine had been surrendered. “The gun owners of New Jersey have surrendered no magazines,” Sgt. Kristina Pados of the State Police admitted (AmmoLand News, April 16, 2019). Millions remain in circulation, and the law has proven unenforceable.

In New York, compliance with the 2013 SAFE Act was abysmal. Only 23,847 individuals registered so-called ‘assault weapons’ out of an estimated one million owners. NYSRPA President Tom King didn’t mince words: “I am amused at the pathetically low numbers of New Yorkers who registered their so-called assault rifles.” He concluded, “By their lack of compliance, [gun owners] have effectively repealed a portion of the NY SAFE Act” (AmmoLand News, June 23, 2015).

Even Forbes reported that nearly one million New Yorkers became potential felons overnight simply for refusing to comply, observing that the law turned “average, and presumably otherwise law-abiding citizens, into a class of people who are now living beyond the law.”

Likely Outcome in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is now following the same path — expanding definitions, imposing impossible deadlines, and demanding non-residents register before even entering the state. The new rules lump unfinished frames and receivers into the same category as fully functional firearms, dragging hobbyists and gunsmiths into the same net as criminals.

If history is any guide, the result will be predictable: widespread non-compliance, mocking of the law on forums and social media, and a state bureaucracy straining to enforce rules that ordinary people will quietly ignore.

The lesson from New York and New Jersey is clear — gun owners don’t view registration as safety. They view it as the first step toward confiscation. And when the state demands too much, citizens stop listening.

Massachusetts lawmakers may claim victory when the system goes live next month. But one year later, when compliance numbers come in, they may learn what Albany and Trenton already know: registration mandates backfire.