BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey said Monday she would oppose gun owners’ potential effort to suspend a new firearm safety law as part of their longer-term strategy to repeal the legislation through a ballot question in 2026.

The governor has the authority to file an emergency preamble to the law to prevent it from being suspended during the petition process. A Healey spokesperson did not directly answer a News Service question Tuesday about whether the governor would pursue that option to protect the implementation of the bill she signed on July 25.

“In Massachusetts, strong gun laws save lives,” the spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s why we came together to enact our state’s most significant gun safety legislation in a decade. We are confident that Massachusetts voters will support these efforts to keep our neighbors, our communities, and our state safe.”

Healey seemed to offer a stronger stance on blocking the law’s suspension on Monday afternoon.

“Oh absolutely,” Healey told reporters when asked whether she would oppose petitioners’ attempt to suspend the law before their referendum seeking to repeal the law makes its way onto a statewide election ballot.

“I mean, this is another example of commonsense gun reform legislation,” Healey continued. “It’s legislation that I signed that had the widespread support of law enforcement, and it’s just the right move we need to make in the state to make it safer, right. And so yeah, we’ll see whatever they do or wherever that goes, but I was proud to be able to sign that into law.”

The law is designed to crack down on the proliferation of ghost guns, expand the state’s red flag law that allows courts to take guns away from people who are a threat to themselves or others, and add to the list of places where individuals are forbidden from carrying firearms, among other provisions.

Laws generally take effect 90 days after being signed by the governor. Some parts of the gun bill are slated to take effect months later, including provisions dealing with training seminars for licensing authorities and collecting data surrounding crimes involving firearms.

Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League, called the law a “flat-out ban on the Second Amendment.” Wallace said GOAL won’t be organizing the referendum effort, but initial signatures jumpstarting the petition process to repeal the law have been filed with the state elections division.

Petitioners must file 49,716 signatures by Oct. 9 to get the law suspended upon the filing of the petitions.

Lawmakers did not attach an emergency preamble to the bill during their lengthy deliberations over it.

The state constitution does not outline a specific timeframe for Healey to file an emergency preamble, instead stating the governor can file it “at any time before the election at which it is to be submitted to the people on referendum.”

Healey would file with Galvin a “statement declaring that in [her] opinion the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or convenience requires that such law should take effect forthwith and that it is an emergency law and setting forth the facts constituting the emergency,” according to the Constitution. With the statement filed, the law “shall take effect without suspension, or if such law has been so suspended such suspension shall thereupon terminate and such law shall thereupon take effect,” the constitution also says.

In 2015, former Gov. Charlie Baker filed an emergency preamble for a bill dealing with North Reading land parcels. In a message to Galvin, Baker declared “that the immediate preservation of the public convenience requires that the attached Act … should take effect immediately.” In that case, Baker filed for the emergency preamble on the same day he signed the bill.

“Because a delay in the effective date of this Act would frustrate the Act’s intent to ensure the prompt disposition of the property at issue, I further declare that, in my opinion, it is in the public interest that this Act take effect immediately,” Baker wrote.