AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine lawmakers adjourned early Thursday without considering a proposal to create a “red flag” law in response to the Oct. 25 Lewiston mass shooting.
The House of Representatives was scheduled to take up the bill Wednesday but never did, a sign the majority party may have lacked the votes to pass it. The Democratic-controlled Legislature worked into the early morning hours of Thursday to pass an addition to the state budget and vote on other final items before adjourning.
The late effort that House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, introduced in March faced more uncertainty than other gun control measures, due to Gov. Janet Mills not weighing in on the bill while proposing only tweaks to the “yellow flag” law she helped craft in 2019 and Judiciary Committee Democrats not agreeing on the red flag bill.
Still, several other gun control bills introduced after Maine’s deadliest mass shooting are reaching Mills after passing each chamber, sometimes by only one vote.
Talbot Ross spokesperson Mary-Erin Casale said the speaker believed her bill “couldn’t receive the attention it deserves” amid the “contentious debate over the budget and the late hour.”
“While she is disappointed that the legislation didn’t advance, the speaker is incredibly proud of what was accomplished,” Casale added.
Those measures that failed in previous sessions would require 72-hour waiting periods for firearm purchases and ban bump stocks as well as other devices allowing semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns. The governor’s separate proposal to amend the yellow flag statute is all but certain to become law after also passing each chamber.
It would make it easier for police to take people into protective custody and also extend background checks to advertised gun sales, make it a felony to sell guns to people prohibited from possessing them, create a centralized violence and injury data hub and expand crisis receiving centers in Maine that treat people in mental health emergencies.
Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who founded her national gun violence prevention organization after surviving a 2011 mass shooting, called the Maine bills “commonsense, popular, evidence-based solutions that would save lives from gun violence.”
“I am urging Gov. Mills to listen to Mainers who are counting on her courage and fortitude, and sign all of these bills into law,” Giffords said in a statement.
Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action lauded Maine lawmakers for passing several gun control bills but said a red flag law could have helped prevent the Lewiston mass shooting, adding their volunteers will continue to advocate for one in future sessions.
“Every new gun safety law we pass takes us one step closer to a future where young people can grow up free from the threat of gun violence,” Lianna Holden, a volunteer leader with the Freeport High School Students Demand Action chapter, said Thursday. “And that’s exactly what we’ve done here today.”
Family and peers of Robert Card II, a 40-year-old Army reservist from Bowdoin, had warned police multiple times of his declining mental health, threats to “shoot up” places and access to firearms in the months before he killed 18 people and injured 13 at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar on Oct. 25 before law enforcement found him dead two days later after he shot himself.
Red flag laws are in effect in 21 states. The legislation differs from Maine’s yellow flag law by letting family members directly petition judges to temporarily remove weapons from a loved one if courts find they pose an “imminent and significant danger.”
The current yellow flag statute does not let families petition judges and instead requires police to take a person into protective custody, have them undergo a mental health evaluation and then go before a court.
The state commission investigating the Lewiston mass shooting released a preliminary report in March that found Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputies had enough probable cause in September to take Card into protective custody. Deputies instead tried unsuccessfully to reaching Card via welfare checks at his residence.
While opponents to the speaker’s proposal pointed to the commission’s initial report to argue the yellow flag law works if police use it, Talbot Ross and supporters said a red flag law could complement the existing process and aid rural law enforcement facing staff shortages.
The Legislature could return in the coming days to override any vetoes from Mills with the support of at least two-thirds of lawmakers.
