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When I visited home over the past long weekend, I filled out my first Massachusetts midterm election ballot. Question 9 caught my eye: the “Firearms Regulations Referendum” asks whether House Bill 4885, enacted in 2024, should be upheld. Voting yes would maintain a ban on “assault-style firearms.” It would also push for stricter regulations when registering a firearm, permitting courts to order firearm surrender and allowing certain school and healthcare workers to request that a court deny gun ownership. For something that seemed like a no-brainer to me, and assumingly to any other Massachusetts voter, I wondered who would possibly vote no.
On my bus back to campus the next day, somewhere in Western Massachusetts, I spotted a billboard in between the foliage flaunting huge text: “VOTE NO ON 9.” I wondered: does lax gun control really have enough support in Massachusetts for a political movement like this to succeed?
Wanting to know more, I found a group online called the Civil Rights Coalition, the main organizers of the “Vote No on Question 9” campaign in Massachusetts. They argue that new regulations impact the privacy and freedom of people who already own guns, turning “law-abiding citizens into criminals overnight and forcing honest citizens to reapply for rights they’ve held for decades.”
It was intriguing to learn about a push to reject gun reform, especially following the school shooting in Bend, Oregon, in which three children and one teacher were killed. Even though Massachusetts has some of the lowest rates of firearm mortality in the country, this issue is closer to me than I thought. As a prominent blue state, I believed favorable views towards gun control would be a given. It turns out it’s not that simple.
Expecting policy to remain constant is problematic; it gives you a false sense of security. If I hadn’t opened my ballot and voted, I would’ve never reflected on how gun regulations could be changing in my state. As students at the University of Massachusetts, we are all developing our morals and beliefs; it is essential to vote so that we can educate ourselves on the world around us.
As of September, only 57% of 18-year-olds in Massachusetts are registered to vote. Living in Massachusetts, especially as a college student, it’s easy to feel disconnected from certain evolving issues such as gun violence, immigration and reproductive rights. People often tend to cope with tragedy by seeing it as some far-away issue rather than something that could’ve occurred in your state, in your neighborhood or even to you.
It’s understandable to compartmentalize how we feel about events outside of UMass, and even how we feel about college-life. But the reality is that things can and do change very quickly, even within our little collegiate bubble. It is up to us as young people to make the changes that we want to see now, so that we can be proud of our efforts later. We cannot take voting for granted.
Vote before things you assumed would stay constant suddenly aren’t. Change may be happening hundreds of miles away or at your doorstep, but the ballot is always in your hands.
Adah Gowan can be reached at [email protected].
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