Winchester residents applying for a new license to carry firearms or renewing one after a certain date will face expanded training requirements beginning April 2 under a Massachusetts law that overhauled the state’s firearms regulations in 2024.

Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, known as An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws, was signed July 25, 2024, and took effect Oct. 2, 2024. The law’s new basic firearms safety course requirements — which include mandatory live-fire training — do not take effect until April 2, 2026, giving the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the Massachusetts State Police and the Municipal Police Training Committee time to finalize a revised curriculum.

According to state firearms license records active as of July 1, 2025, Winchester residents held 918 licenses to carry, 38 firearms identification cards and four resident licenses to possess a machine gun. The records do not provide historical figures, so whether those totals represent an increase or decrease over prior years is not confirmed by available data.

Put in context of Winchester’s population of roughly 23,000, about one in every 25 residents holds a license to carry — a ratio that reflects the town’s affluent suburban character and Massachusetts’ reputation as one of the most tightly regulated states for firearms in the country.

Winchester and Marblehead are the focus communities. Peers selected based on comparable population size, demographics and suburban character. A license to carry firearms, the more powerful credential, permits holders to carry concealed handguns and possess large-capacity weapons. A firearms identification card covers only rifles, shotguns and certain ammunition — no handguns, no concealed carry — which explains why carry license counts dwarf identification card numbers in every community.

New training rules take effect April 2

The four machine gun licenses stand out. Resident licenses to possess a machine gun require both a standard license to carry and additional federal paperwork through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, making them rare statewide.

Their presence in Winchester likely reflects a small number of collectors or competitive shooters who have navigated that process.

Massachusetts is among the most restrictive — and safest — states in the country when it comes to firearms. Only 14.7% of Massachusetts adults report owning a gun, tied with New Jersey for the lowest ownership rate in the nation, according to survey data compiled by the Pew Research Center. By comparison, Montana leads the country at 66.3%.

That low ownership rate is matched by a low death rate. Massachusetts experienced 3.7 gun deaths per 100,000 residents — the lowest in the nation and 73 percent below the national average, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Mississippi, at the other end of the spectrum, recorded 29.4 gun deaths per 100,000.

In raw numbers, an average of 259 people die from gun violence in Massachusetts each year — someone every 34 hours. Fifty-five percent of those deaths are suicides and 43% are homicides. In 2023, Massachusetts recorded 270 gun fatalities, ranking 37th out of 50 states — meaning 36 states had worse rates.

Winchester sits in Middlesex County, which recorded the lowest gun death rate of any county in Massachusetts in 2024 at 2.6 per 100,000 — well below a statewide rate that is itself the lowest in the nation.

Massachusetts remains low in gun ownership — and gun deaths

Even as Massachusetts maintains its position at the bottom of national ownership rankings, gun sales have been rising. Massachusetts recorded the largest year-over-year increase in gun sales of any state between 2023 and 2024, up 22.5%, according to an analysis by SafeHome.org using Federal Bureau of Investigation background check data.

Researchers attributed much of that spike to preemptive purchases ahead of the Oct. 2, 2024, effective date of the new law, particularly for semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that would become subject to a new minimum purchase age of 21.

Not every current license holder is affected by the new training mandate. The law requires the updated course — including live-fire instruction — only for first-time applicants and for those who applied for their license after Aug. 1, 2024. Holders who obtained or renewed their license before that date are not required to complete additional training under the new law.

Winchester Police Department Lt. Edward Donohue, who oversees licensing for the town, said the expanded requirement represents a meaningful improvement for newer gun owners.

“This is a positive improvement as some first-time applicants may have never fired or handled a firearm prior to obtaining a license,” Donohue wrote in a summary of the law's changes.

Donohue said current license holders are largely unaffected.

“In terms of previously licensed to carry holders the law does not require any additional training or certifications in order to keep your LTC,” he wrote.

On the enforcement side, Donohue said the department’s responsibilities remain essentially unchanged.

“The law does not put any further requirements on the department for enforcement purposes outside of ensuring new applicants fill out their applications correctly,” he wrote.

He encouraged anyone with questions about the new requirements — whether a first-time applicant or a longtime permit holder — to contact their local police department directly.

EOPSS guidance issued Nov. 13, 2025, confirmed that licensing authorities may continue to accept basic firearms safety certificates issued under the previous law until the new course requirements take effect April 2. Once that date passes, the updated curriculum, including the live-fire component, becomes mandatory for covered applicants.

Registration deadline arrives in October 2026

The law also creates a statewide electronic firearms registration system accessible through the state’s Massachusetts Integrated Criminal Records and Court System portal.

While the system is already operational, gun owners are not required to register firearms until Oct. 28, 2026.

Donohue said the registration requirement is unlikely to be a significant burden for most owners.

“As of right now most people who buy/purchase firearms within the commonwealth already have their firearms registered,” he wrote. “This will primarily not be an issue with most gun owners as dealers will fill out the appropriate paperwork at the point of sale.”

Residents who previously registered firearms through the state’s existing transaction portal will not need to re-register when the new system’s deadline arrives, according to November 2025 EOPSS guidance.

New Massachusetts residents have 60 days to obtain a firearms license and must register their firearms once licensed. Firearms manufactured before Oct. 22, 1968, are exempt from a separate serialization requirement also taking effect Oct. 28, 2026.

The law expanded the pool of people eligible to petition a court for an extreme risk protection order — sometimes called a red flag order — which can compel a license holder to surrender firearms and ammunition.

Under the new law, petitioners may include family or household members, law enforcement officers who have interacted with the respondent within the preceding 30 days, certain health care providers who treated the respondent within the preceding six months and school principals or administrators where the respondent is enrolled. Previously, only family members or household members and the respondent's local licensing authority could petition for such an order.

Massachusetts’ existing red flag law has been cited by gun safety advocates as a model provision. The state's overall package of firearms laws earned an A grade from the Giffords Law Center in 2024 — its first ever top score — and Everytown for Gun Safety ranked Massachusetts second in the country for gun law strength in 2025.

The state continues to accept basic firearms safety certificates issued under the previous course standards through April 1. Gun owners can access the registration and serialization systems at mass.gov. Questions about licensing should be directed to the Winchester Police Department.

Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He runs The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.