Riding a revitalized push to address gun safety, Senator Edward J. Markey on Monday unveiled legislation designed to push other states to adopt Massachusetts’ get-tough laws, including requiring all gun owners to be licensed and giving local police chiefs the power to reject problem applicants.

The legislation, which Markey said he will file Tuesday, aims to expand the Massachusetts legal blueprint across the country by using Department of Justice grants to incentivize states to harden their own laws.

Massachusetts has the lowest rate for firearms deaths in the country, according to Center for Disease Control data. In calling the state a model for gun legislation, Markey pointed to the advocacy that last month’s massacre at a Florida high school has unleashed as a defining factor in the new push for change.

“Gun violence is not inevitable or preordained. It is preventable,’’ Markey said at a press conference at the Boston Police Department’s Roxbury headquarters.

“I think what we’re seeing is a children’s crusade across the country,’’ he added. “I think what we’re seeing is something that’s very powerful, the voices of these young people. . . . I think this year we’ll see real change take place, either in Congress now or at the polling booth in November. This is now a voting issue.’’

The bill, dubbed the Making America Safe and Secure Act, or MASS Act, would authorize Department of Justice officials to hand out $20 million in grants in each of the next five years to states that adopt measures similar to those in Massachusetts.

Under state law, local chiefs here have wide discretion in approving or denying gun license applications in addition to requiring that applicants clear a state background check, including having no felony convictions or restraining orders.

Gun dealers are also licensed in Massachusetts.

The bill outlines several requirements for funding, according to a summary released by Markey’s office.

States would have to establish local police departments or boards as a licensing authority. First-time applicants would also have to complete safety training, and all applicants would be required to go through an interview process.

States would also have to mandate that dealers verify that a potential buyer is licensed before selling a firearm.

Markey’s office did not respond to a request for the bill’s complete language.

“I can’t guarantee that it will be sufficient,’’ Markey said of the bill and its promise of grants, “but it will take away the excuse that it’s going to take money.’’

Markey said he was in the beginning stages of recruiting cosponsors for the bill and he did not outline specifics of a lobbying strategy. But he said he intends to work with Walsh to “find support’’ among police chiefs in major cities outside of Massachusetts as well.

But the legislation could face an uphill climb on the Republican-controlled Capitol Hill, where a flood of gun safety ideas have lapped against its steps since 17 people were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

President Trump has at different points pushed proposals of arming and providing training for some schoolteachers while raising the minimum age to purchase guns from 18 to 21 years old.

But he also appeared to back off the latter point at the same time the White House announced that it is establishing a commission to study school safety.

The National Rifle Association — which Markey says has a “vise-like grip’’ on Congress — did not respond to a request for comment on the proposal. But the head of the association’s state affiliate criticized the state’s laws as a labyrinthine network that even lawful gun owners have trouble following.

Offering federal grants to replicate it would be a “bribe for people to pass bad law,’’ said Jim Wallace of the Gun Owners’ Action League. “I think we’ve hit the point here of calling it regulatory fatigue syndrome.’’

A line of speakers, including local police chiefs, praised Markey’s legislation at Monday’s press conference as a common-sense measure that’s taking what they called the country’s most stringent laws and replicating it on a larger scale.

“What we’re proposing here is great. I just hope we have some luck in Washington,’’ Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans. “Honestly they don’t seem to be getting the message. . . . I don’t know what it’s going to take.’’

The majority of the guns law enforcement recovered here in 2016 originated from other states: Just 444 of the roughly 1,200 guns police successfully traced came from Massachusetts.

The state has also consistently ranked in the bottom five states in per capita gun ownership, even with major jumps in recent years.

The 129,077 dealer sales the state recorded in 2016 marked the most ever, according to new report released this month by the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. That number dipped to 111,000 in 2016 but it still marked the second most over the last decade.

The state has also seen its number of active licenses balloon by 31 percent the last four years, topping 431,600 as recently as January.

E-mail Matt at matt.stout-@globe.com. Follow him on twitter @mattpstout.