AUGUSTA, Maine — U.S. Sen. Angus King introduced a bill Thursday to regulate the sale of gas-operated semi-automatic weapons, limit high-capacity magazines, ban bump stocks and create a gun buyback program in the wake of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting.
King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, had teased action on the weapons since the Oct. 25 mass shooting at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar in which a gunman used a military-style rifle to kill 18 people and injure 13 others. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, joined King in introducing the bill, which is co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, and Mark Kelly, D-Arizona.
The Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act, or GOSAFE Act, will target “lethal capacity weapons like the one used in Lewiston and most of the deadliest mass shootings across the country” while protecting Second Amendment rights, said King, who previously noted his opposition to a separate bill before Congress to ban the sale of 205 assault-style weapons by name.
King said during a virtual press conference with Heinrich Thursday he received information the Lewiston shooter, Robert R. Card II, a 40-year-old Army reservist from Bowdoin, had “two large-capacity magazines taped together so when one was depleted he could simply flip them around and put the magazine in place and keep shooting.”
Police said they found a Ruger SFAR rifle in Card’s car and a Smith & Wesson M&P .40 caliber handgun and Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle by his body discovered two days after the shooting. State police have not released test results to confirm which weapon or weapons the man used during the rampage, nor have authorities confirmed when Card acquired the guns.
King said his “only understanding” is Card acquired the guns before mental health incidents that “manifested themselves last summer” and that he looks forward to learning more from the independent commission that Maine leaders established to review the shooting.
The 20-page bill has several components, including exemptions for various weapons. The proposal would establish a list of prohibited semi-automatic firearms, prevent certain modifications of allowed firearms, prevent “unlawful” self-assembly of “ghost guns” and mandate that future “gas-operated” designs are approved before manufacture.
It would limit magazines to no more than 10 rounds of ammunition and outlaw conversion devices, such as Glock switches and bump stocks that allow guns to fire rapidly. Finally, it would set up a voluntary buyback program to allow gun owners to turn in and receive compensation for guns and magazines that would be banned under the legislation.
Exemptions would apply to several weapons, such as semi-automatic shotguns, .22-caliber rimfire or less firearms, bolt-action rifles, recoil-operated handguns, rifles and shotguns with permanently fixed magazines of 10 rounds or less and handguns with permanently fixed magazines of up to 15 rounds.
Violators could face up to a year in jail and a maximum $5,000 fine, and those who possess a banned semi-automatic weapon while committing a federal offense would also face between two to 10 years in prison and a maximum $250,000, under the bill.
Heinrich, whose state saw three people killed and six injured in a May shooting, said the “gas-operated mechanisms are what allows civilian mass shooters to walk into public spaces, destroy human life at a rapid pace and even outgun law enforcement.”
The bill’s passage is hardly guaranteed in a divided Senate and Republican-controlled House. King and Heinrich said they are hopeful for bipartisan support, and King said they shared the proposal with several Republican colleagues who are “reviewing it.”
King told the Albuquerque Journal the bill would “grandfather in” all weapons that gun owners currently possess but would restrict whom owners could sell the weapons to, adding he and Heinrich crafted the bill “pragmatically to stand up to the Supreme Court we have today.”
King and Heinrich’s bill is so far endorsed by gun violence prevention groups such as Sandy Hook Promise, Everytown for Gun Safety, March for Our Lives and several New Mexico police departments.
Randy Kozuch, executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, said the bill “blatantly violates the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court rulings by banning the very types of firearms and magazines most often utilized by Americans for defending themselves and their families.”
King had signaled he would take some sort of action on semi-automatic weapons after the Lewiston mass shooting, telling an Instagram commenter “you won’t be disappointed much longer” after the person asked why he would not vote “to take weapons of war out of the hands of dangerous people?”
At a news conference the day after the mass shooting, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate Democrat from Lewiston, said he would reverse his previous opposition to banning assault-style weapons, while U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has declined to back such a ban. Golden did not immediately comment Thursday on King’s bill.
READ ANGUS KING’S OWN WORDS
Collins has cosponsored a separate bill to ban bump stocks and also has said she supports limiting high-capacity magazines, though she voted against magazine limits in 2013 while supporting expanded background checks that year.
Collins will “carefully consider” King’s bill and is drafting legislation that would direct the military to “fully utilize state crisis intervention laws,” spokesperson Annie Clark said Thursday.
“Sen. Collins believes that there is a crime and violence problem in this country and that Congress should join with the states and law enforcement in trying to address it,” Clark said.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine’s 1st District, said she has fought to reinstate a federal assault-style weapons ban that expired in 2004 and is “encouraged” by King and Heinrich’s bill.
King and Collins sent a letter in early November to the Army’s inspector general that asks for a review of the mass shooting to help inform future legislation. The Army Reserve has launched two internal investigations into what led up to Card going on the Lewiston shooting rampage before police found him dead two days later from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Card’s family and military peers had warned police on several occasions in the months before the October shooting about his erratic behavior and access to firearms, with Card also spending about two weeks this summer in a New York psychiatric hospital.
The gun-control debate is also playing out in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, though it remains uncertain which bills could come up during a shortened 2024 legislative session.
Maine gun-control proponents have called for an assault-style weapons ban, a red flag law and 72-hour waiting periods for firearm purchases, while David Trahan of the pro-gun rights Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who is more conservative on gun policy, have discussed less sweeping measures since Lewiston and April’s quadruple homicide in Bowdoin.
Mills spokesperson Ben Goodman said she welcomes King’s bill “as an important contribution to that discussion, she appreciates his thoughtful approach to this issue and she looks forward to closely reviewing the language of the bill.”
READ MORE LEWISTON MASS SHOOTING COVERAGE
Trahan said he remains focused on working with Collins at the federal level and state officials on various proposals related to flagging “dangerous persons” and gun safety.
Trahan added he thinks King’s bill is “unlikely to make it through Congress” amid a “very contentious election cycle.”
President Joe Biden renewed his call for an assault-style weapons ban following the shooting in Lewiston, where he visited survivors, victims’ families and first responders in early November.
White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention Director Stefanie Feldman said Thursday the administration supports King and Heinrich’s bill and “any effort to keep assault weapons and high-capacity magazines out of dangerous hands.”