A movement to repeal a landmark firearms law that Beacon Hill Democrats and Gov. Maura Healey enacted last year is surging ahead, with gun rights advocates demanding lawmakers reverse course on the “abomination.”

Second Amendment proponents are using the months-long pretrial detention of an Air Force veteran, arrested for having guns registered in Arizona, but not in the Bay State, as a case example for why “Chapter 135” must be pulled back.

The veteran, Kyle Culotta, attended a hearing at the State House on Friday on a bill that calls for the full repeal of the Democratic-driven gun law, which backers have hailed as a key measure to save lives, create safer communities, and maintain responsible ownership of firearms

The contentious Halloween hearing, with some lawmakers and advocates butting heads, came four days after Culotta was released from the Worcester County House of Correction on $10,000 bail.

Peter Durant, a Spencer Republican, is the sponsor of the Senate bill to fully repeal Chapter 135, a sweeping piece of legislation that he says is “one of the most significant infringements on the rights of law-abiding gun owners that we’ve seen in Massachusetts in decades.”

Durant is also sponsoring other bills that aim to remove sections of the statute, covering gun registrations, a nonresident ban on semiautomatic magazines, a ban on automatic rifles and shotguns, livefire training requirements, and a “pre-ban” on magazines.

Chapter 135, Durant highlighted, also expanded so-called “sensitive places” where lawful carry is prohibited, put a limit on lawful transfers and redefined possession in ways that “criminalize conduct that has long been legal.”

“Each of these measures is designed to address areas where Chapter 135 overstepped,” Durant said, “where it placed new burdens on responsible citizens rather than addressing the true drivers of crime and violence.”

“It’s important that we understand that this is a fundamental, constitutional right,” the senator added.

Culotta did not testify during Friday’s hearing, but his fiancée, Sarandë Jackson, who raised more than $27,000 via an online fundraising campaign to bail out the “love of her life,” grilled lawmakers who helped pass the legislation last year.

Authorities stopped Culotta and Jackson just 30 hours after the couple arrived in the Bay State from Arizona on the night of June 24 in Gardner. Jackson’s vehicle had expired auto insurance, and Culotta, the driver, informed police officers that he had weapons in the car and a pistol in his pocket.

Police found three handguns, five rifles, and a “fully stocked military-style ammo” case in Jackson’s vehicle. Culotta had a license to carry firearms in Arizona but not in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts does not recognize gun licenses from other states. That prompted a jail stay of over 120 days, as three different judges determined Culotta to be dangerous. A Gardner District Court judge, though, reversed the court, finally granting the veteran bail on Oct. 21.

Jackson demanded that lawmakers reconsider their priorities in who they criminalize.

“You guys have seen the news all summer; these people setting fire to cop cars, causing chaos in the streets,” she said. “You want to make this place safer? Then disincentivize criminals to have guns and cause chaos.”

Last month, Worcester County prosecutors dismissed Culotta’s “most serious charges,” which included “assault style firearm” and “large capacity” magazine and firearm offenses. Culotta’s criminal case is set to proceed in December.

State Rep. Ken Sweezey, a Pembroke Republican, is sponsoring the House bill to repeal Chapter 135. He is in his first legislative session after being elected last November, but he called it “unfortunate that we cannot have a process where stakeholders are at the table.”

That prompted a clash with state Rep. David Linsky, a Natick Democrat who has been in the state Legislature for over a quarter of a century.

“You weren’t a member of the Legislature when we passed this bill. Were you?,” Linsky asked Sweezey. The freshman representative responded, “Correct.”

“I want you to understand the process that we used to get this bill passed,” Linsky said. “The work on this bill, quite frankly, started several years before the Legislature voted on it.”

Linsky highlighted how the Legislature held what he described as a comprehensive listening series to hear from constituents on the law.

“I don’t think the sky has fallen,” Linsky said. “Massachusetts is the safest state in the nation as far as gun violence goes. That’s what the statistics say.”

That elicited jeers from the public gallery.

Sweezey offered a rebuttal, saying he touched about “500 homicide cases” while he worked for the St. Louis Police Department.  “I can’t think of a single case off the top of my head,” he said, “where a legally-had gun was used in a crime that didn’t have a previous record of another violent act.”

“When this law criminalizes those lawful gun owners,” he added, “it has no bearing on the reality of the ground. Massachusetts was already the safest state two years ago. Chapter 135 has not changed that fact.”

A legislative push to erase the gun law from the state’s books comes after a group of gun store owners and firearm owners, dubbed as the Civil Rights Coalition, managed to collect more than 90,000 signatures to place a question on the 2026 ballot asking voters to repeal the law.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed in various courts in Massachusetts challenging the law,

Jim Wallace, the executive director of the Gun Owners League of Massachusetts, said his organization has shifed from acting as “premier” advocates to focusing on “trying to keep lawful citizens out of prison.”

GOAL retained legal counsel for Culotta.

“This man had no criminal record, Air Force veteran, CDL truck driver,” Wallace said of Culotta. “He was exercising a civil right. He was arrested. He was declared a dangerous individual, and he was detained unconstitutionally for four months.”

“The laws are destroying lives,” he added.