A group of gun violence prevention advocates launched a campaign Monday to convince voters to keep in place a major gun law that gun owners and Second Amendment rights supporters are attempting to repeal through the 2026 statewide elections.

The “Vote Yes for a Safe Massachusetts” campaign slammed gun rights groups trying to repeal the law as “extremists” who are looking to upend a “lifesaving law in its entirety.” Critics of the law have said it is an overreach of governmental powers, while supporters contend it creates safer communities.

Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence Executive Director Ruth Zakarin said “strong policies” in the state are working to keep people safe from gun violence, and the bill approved last year helps lower the rate of gun deaths.

“I think for me, it’s about making sure that people understand the role that these kinds of laws play in decreasing rates of gun violence and nothing that’s in the law is taking people’s rights away,” Zakarin told the Herald. “Legal gun owners still have a right to have their legal guns. That does not change.”

Toby Leary, owner of Cape Gun Works and head of the group trying to repeal the law, The Civil Rights Coalition, did not immediately respond to a Herald inquiry Monday. But the social media account for The Civil Rights Coalition blasted the new campaign.

“Restricting non-resident junior hunting has nothing to do with stopping violent crime. We look forward to multiple debates and forums to help educate voters,” the coalition said. “The way to stop violent crime is to lock up violent criminals and not re-release them to the streets.”

Leary and his group collected more than 90,000 signatures last year to place a question on the 2026 ballot asking voters to repeal the expansive gun law.

The amount of signatures the group gathered would have been enough to immediately suspend the law until the election, but Gov. Maura Healey used executive action to immediately implement the statute by declaring it an emergency measure.

The gun law is sweeping.

It bans people under 21 from owning semiautomatic rifles or shotguns, takes aim at so-called “ghost guns” by requiring the serialization of all firearms, and bars technology that turns semiautomatic weapons into fully automatic ones.

The law also implemented a host of new training and licensing requirements

Other parts of the statute govern inspections of firearms dealers, establishment of a new firearms control advisory board, and notifications related to applications for civil commitments and the expiration of harassment prevention orders.

Opponents of the law are also pursuing multiple lawsuits in local and federal courts.

Juanita Batchelor, the executive director of the Darrell Lee Jenkins, Jr. Resource Center in Springfield, is another member of “Vote Yes for a Safe Massachusetts.” Batchelor said the firearms policy is critical to reducing gun violence in Western Massachusetts.

“Springfield is my home, it is where I lost my son, and it is where I work to ensure that no other mom has to experience such a loss. We must protect this vital legislation from repeal, and we must do everything we can to keep our communities — and our children — safe from gun violence,” Batchelor said in a statement.

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