Amid growing outcry over mass shootings across the nation, US Sen. Ed Markey said on Monday that he will file a bill aimed at preventing gun violence that will use Massachusetts laws as a model for the federal level.

The Making America Safe and Secure (MASS) Act would incentivize other states to adopt gun safety laws already implemented in Massachusetts through an annual grant from the Department of Justice of $20 million over the next five years.

The senator made the pitch for his idea at a press conference at Boston Police Department headquarters.

“Our gun safety bills are a model for other states and, I believe, for the US Congress to follow,” said Markey, who was flanked by Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and law enforcement leaders. “Over the past two decades, Massachusetts has adopted some of the most comprehensive and effective gun violence prevention laws in the country. And as a result, since 1994, we have reduced gun deaths by 40 percent.” He added, “It is in part due to these laws that we have the lowest gun death rate of all 50 states.”

If passed, the bill would hive states additional federal dollars if they adopt the Massachusetts system for firearms licensing, which requires all prospective gun buyers to apply for a license and complete an in-person interview with their local police chief as a form of background check.
“The involvement of a police chief in the licensing process is key,” Markey explained. “A license in Massachusetts is only given with the police chief stamp of approval. That’s the way it is in Massachusetts. That’s the way it should across the United States.”

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans cited a study of Massachusetts gun seizures that he said documents how lax regulations in other states impact law and order here in the Commonwealth.

“Of the 3,200 guns recovered in the state, only 32 percent were bought in Massachusetts,” he said. Evans explained that with the majority of illegally obtained guns are being brought into the state via the I-95 corridor— from the north from New Hampshire and Maine, and from the south from Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

The mayor endorsed Markey’s bill and emphasized the need for sustained urgency on the matter of gun safety. “Congress needs to understand the severity of this issue,” he said. “Not the day after a shooting happens, but the month after it happens. How many more mass shootings in schools do we need to have to move this needle forward?” Walsh asked.

The mayor also voiced his support for students who have spoken out against gun violence and organized school walkouts across the country. “We’re proud of the students at Parkland for taking a stand. We’re proud of the students in Boston for taking a stand,” he said.

The outrage expressed by students of Stoneham Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, has brought the gun safety debate back into the national spotlight in recent weeks. Students around the country are following cues and becoming vocal leaders for the cause. Boston Local Group Leader of Moms Demand Action Angela Christiana said her organization has been in touch with local colleges and high schools about the Boston March For Our Lives on March 24, and is expecting a large turnout.

“It will be thousands,” she said. “We think it’s gonna be around 20,000.”

Another local organization, Operation LIPSTICK (Ladies Involved in Putting a Stop to Inner City Killing), is raising money to send a diverse group of youths from Boston and New York down to the march in Washington on the 24th. So far, donations have already raised enough for one bus and activist Ruth Rollins expects to have multiples by the day of the march.

“This has been something that’s taken on a life of its own,” she said, describing the movement.

A Boston-based non-profit, LIPSTICK mainly aims to educate women about the dangers of “straw purchasing,” or buying a gun for a husband or boyfriend who then commits a crime.

While school shootings at suburban, mostly white high schools often receive the most media attention, the constant threat of gun violence for kids in city neighborhoods tends to fly under the national radar. LIPSTICK hopes to address this discrepancy by providing city youth an opportunity to express their own voices on a national platform.

“We have mass shootings yearly, in terms of a lot of losses of life day by day,” Rollins said. “Our children are being traumatized by gun violence as well...A lot of these kids marching have lost their classmates.”

Her 21-year-old son Danny was shot to death in 2007, Rollins said, noting that her granddaughter plans to march in Washington in honor of her father. “It’s really emotional for me, the fact that my grand-daughter wants to march,” she said. “Often we hear from parents like me but we never hear from the children. This is their time.”

Donations to Operation LIPSTICK can be made at razoo.com/story/operationlipstick. RSVP for the Boston March For Our Lives at marchforourlives.com.