Maine moms, students advocate for gun safety as lawmakers debate suite of reforms

Seventeen-year-old Lianna Holden would normally be at Freeport High School on a Wednesday morning, but this week she wasn’t.

Instead, Holden, who lives in Lewiston, was at the Maine State House alongside other students and volunteers from the local chapters of Students Demand Action and Moms Demand Action advocating for gun safety.

“Gun violence in Maine didn’t start or end on Oct. 25,” Holden said, referring to the state’s deadliest mass shooting that left 18 people dead and another 13 wounded in Lewiston.

Holden founded the Students Demand Action chapter at her high school because she was angry about growing up in a world that normalized active-shooter drills; she was angry for the families whose loved ones died. But she made it clear to those at the rally that Maine’s long-standing tradition of hunting can co-exist with gun safety. 

“Those two goals are not mutually exclusive,” she told the crowd  before people set off to talk with legislators about their support for strong reforms such as a 72-hour waiting period, background checks and ban on rapid fire conversion devices. 

Committee still has questions about the bills

The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee convened Wednesday afternoon to begin their work on four gun-related bills introduced last week including the bill from Gov. Janet Mills that seeks to strengthen mental health support and the state’s yellow flag law. 

While those who spoke against the bills at last week’s public hearing said they infringe on their Second Amendment rights, groups like Moms Demand Action say that while they don’t go as far as some of the reforms they’d like to see, the measures could help save lives. 

The bills discussed at the work session were:

• LD 2119, which would allow a person to waive their right to purchase a firearm and would also limit the liability for a business to temporarily store someone’s firearms.
• LD 2224, the governor’s bill, which would create an injury and violence prevention program within the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to collect data about violence, fund crisis receiving centers and strengthen the state’s yellow flag law. LD 2238, which would institute a 72-hour waiting period after a gun is purchased before the buyer can pick it up. 
• LD 2086, which would require all forfeited firearms to be destroyed. This bill also seeks to update the definition of “machine gun” to align with the federal definition.

The committee did not vote on any of the bills and tabled them for further discussion at future work sessions.

LD 2119 sponsor Rep. Vicki Doudera (D-Camden) introduced an amendment to study the voluntary waiver of an individual’s rights in response to questions raised during the hearing about whether the courts or a government agency should be involved in the waiver process. The study task force would also examine how to ensure confidentiality, how to ensure people can easily reinstate their rights and how to safeguard against fraud or coercion. The safe storage agreement portion of the bill would remain intact. The task force would be required to submit a report in December, in time for the next legislative session. 

At packed hearing, mental health community raises concerns over aspects of Mills’ gun bill

Three other states have enacted similar legislation, but all of them have different agencies handling the process. The point of doing this study, Doudera explained, is to figure out “the best way to do this for Maine.”

In discussions on the other three bills, the committee tried to better understand how Maine’s current yellow flag law works in practice and the intricacies of background checks and the record keeping that goes along with them. 

Colleen Adams, an officer with the Sanford Police Department, walked the committee through the yellow flag process based on her experience embedded with the department’s mental health unit. That unit responds to mental health calls with both police officers and crisis workers, she said. 

Adams explained the challenge of putting someone in protective custody — which Mills is attempting to address through LD 2224 — as well as being charged with making a mental illness assessment without the medical training to do so. 

According to Adams, as part of the yellow flag process, an officer must find that a person is mentally ill and a danger to themself or others to take them into protective custody. Adams said that sometimes officers are prohibited from moving forward with the process because both factors aren’t present. 

Committee members also discussed concerns raised during the public hearing about how the mental illness requirement in LD 2224 can perpetuate a stigma while excluding other people who may not have a diagnosed illness but pose a risk of harm. 

On the issue of background checks, Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said the governor was trying to find a middle-ground.

While LD 2224 does not propose universal background checks, Sauschuck said it’s trying to address any advertised sales and gun shows, where background checks are not currently required.