Massachusetts Democrats who helped pass a sweeping update to the state’s gun laws want opponents who have threatened to file a legal challenge to the new statute to “bring it on,” arguing the measure is rock solid and saves lives.

At a ceremonial bill signing days after the proposal had already become law, one of the measure’s chief authors, Rep. Michael Day, said he was not phased by a potential lawsuit from the National Rifle Association, which promised “to restore rights guaranteed to Bay Staters by the U.S. Constitution.”

“To those who have already rushed forward to say that they will challenge this law in the courts, I say, bring it on,” the Stoneham Democrat said. “Let me help you in your inevitable search for legislative intent by being clear here today, our legislative intent in modernizing our firearm laws … is to save lives. That’s it.”

In a statement last week when Healey officially signed the measure into law, Randy Kozuch, the head of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said the proposal was “one of the most egregious and freedom-restricting laws in the history of the Commonwealth”

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“We are thankful for the bipartisan group of legislators who stood against gun registries and the banning of commonly owned firearms and standard magazines. NRA will be challenging this law to restore the rights guaranteed to Bay Staters by the U.S. Constitution,” Kozuch said.

Under the deal Democrats brokered earlier this month, Massachusetts residents under the age of 21 are barred from owning semiautomatic rifles or shotguns, the use of untraceable “ghost guns” is restricted, and carrying a firearm in government buildings, polling places, and schools is prohibited.

The law also requires prospective firearms identification card holders to undergo live fire training and bans gun modifications that turn semiautomatic firearms into automatic ones.

House Speaker Ron Mariano said being sued by the NRA is a “real badge of honor for all of us that we have their attention and they’re not happy, which makes me very, very happy.”