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Some of the 46 firearms that were confiscated by TSA security during luggage searches at airports across the country. The TSA has very strict rules for flying with guns and these were found to be in violation.

(Courtesy of the Travel Security Administration)

Update, 1:50 p.m.: The Gun Owners' Action League officially came out in support of the bill on Thursday afternoon.

BOSTON — House and Senate negotiators may have done the near-impossible on a bill reforming Massachusetts' gun laws: reached a compromise that pleases both advocates of gun rights and of gun control.

The main sticking point as the committee of conference was negotiating the bill, H. 4376 (read the full text of the bill at the end of this article), was whether to give local police chiefs discretion on whether to issue firearms identification cards, which are required to buy a shotgun or rifle.

Until now, the police have had the authority to determine whether someone is "suitable" to buy a handgun before issuing a license to carry. That means even if a person has no criminal convictions, a police chief can, for example, look at a record of police calls to the person's address. However, the chiefs have not had the same discretion regarding the issuance of firearms identification cards.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat, in the gun bill he proposed, would have given police chiefs the same discretion for a shotgun license as for a handgun license. Pro-gun advocates objected, saying the provision gave too much power to local police chiefs to deny a gun license for no reason. The Senate stripped that provision from their bill, angering gun control advocates.

Late Wednesday night, a committee of conference released its final bill. The bill says that if a person meets the qualifications for a firearms identification card, but a police chief thinks the person is unsuitable for a license, the police chief has 90 days to petition the District Court, and a judge must sign off on the designation. The compromise essentially gives the police chiefs discretion, but shifts the burden of proof by requiring the police chiefs to prove a person is unsuitable.

John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, said the compromise is "far from ideal" but he will support it. "I trust police chiefs. They're on the front lines, and they know their residents ... but legislation takes compromise," Rosenthal said. "Overall, it's a great piece of public safety legislation. It will be a national model."

Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners' Action League of Massachusetts, said Thursday morning that he was still reading through the bill and deciding whether to support it. But he sounded a positive note regarding the compromise, which he framed as a way for the Legislature to give police chiefs a means to deny a license but not the outright authority. "It's a message to the chiefs as a whole that they need to clean up their act," Wallace said.

The president and executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police did not immediately return requests for comment Thursday morning.

The only member of the committee of conference not to sign off on the bill when it came out of committee was Sen. Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican and the state Senate minority leader. But even Tarr, asked about the bill Thursday morning, sounded a positive note about the compromise, though he would not commit to a stance on the entire bill.

"We worked very hard to respect the Second Amendment, but at the same time to provide a safety valve in the instance where a chief felt so strongly that someone was a threat to public safety that they were willing to go to court and prove it," Tarr said.

The bill is expected to be voted on Thursday by both the House and Senate before the session ends at midnight.

The full bill includes a huge range of provisions aimed at reducing gun violence, including requiring the state to transmit information about substance abuse or mental health commitment to a federal database; requiring background checks for all private gun sales; increasing penalties for gun crimes; and requiring schools to improve services related to both emergency management and mental health.

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