Maine Gun Grabbers Try End-Around on Red Flag Laws

I’m generally not a fan of ballot initiatives, in part because our Founding Fathers didn’t want direct democracy. They knew what kind of a trainwreck that would be, and while our elected officials don’t exactly cover themselves in glory, mob rule isn’t any better.

But, they’re a thing in a number of states.

In Maine, which long staved off gun control despite being a pretty blue state, gun control advocates are disappointed they didn’t get more of what they wanted from the legislature. So, they’re going to try an end-around the legislature and try mob rule instead.

After multiple failed attempts in the legislature, the Maine Gun Safety Coalition on Thursday submitted more than 80,000 signatures in the hopes that voters will pass a red flag law to take guns away from dangerous people.

If passed, Maine would join 21 other states with extreme risk protection order laws, most of which allow family members to petition a judge to confiscate firearms from a loved one so they don’t harm themselves or others.

Maine has a version of an ERPO — dubbed a yellow flag law — but it relies on law enforcement to initiate the process and includes a mental health evaluation. Critics argue those additional steps make the law burdensome for cops and exclude family members from taking their concerns directly to a judge.

During a press conference in the State House Hall of Flags, the Maine Gun Safety Coalition’s Nacole Palmer said she expects gun rights groups to go all out to try to defeat the proposal should it qualify for the November ballot.

“We know that Mainers reject a false choice between gun rights and gun responsibility,” she said. “That we can respect the freedom to own guns, but also respect that communities have the right to feel safe.”

Gun rights groups argue red flag laws are unconstitutional, although there’s yet to be a successful legal challenge in a state that has one.

Yet. That’s the keyword there. There hasn’t been a successful challenge yet.

Moving on…

Previous red flag proposals have sputtered in the legislature, including last year when Gov. Janet Mills signaled that she would oppose such a measure. An investigation by Maine Public, the Portland Press Herald and Frontline PBS showed that Democrats who control the legislature responded by slow-walking a red flag bill that was introduced late in the session. The proposal never received a vote in the House or Senate before adjournment.

“Too many lawmakers failed to act, buckling under political pressure,” said Arthur Barnard, who joined the Maine Gun Safety Coalition after his son Arthur Strout was killed in the Lewiston shooting. “To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I was furious.”

Sure he was furious.

However, let’s keep in mind that the Lewiston killer was evaluated by trained mental health professionals who opted not to use the state’s current laws. This idea that if more people could have petitioned the government to take his weapons, everything would have been hunky dory has no basis in fact, only in wishful thinking.

Here’s the thing that needs to be remembered, though. Red flag laws have been on the ballot in Maine before. Voters rejected them soundly.

Granted, that was before Lewiston, which rattled a whole lot of people, but that was also over a year ago. People have settled down a lot, and while they might not be as resistant to gun control as they were before, a lot of people are also going to be uncomfortable with a red flag law.

In other words, there’s no guarantee that this will turn out like they think it will.

My hope is that it doesn’t come to that, in part because all it’ll do is serve as a great big distraction from a lot of things that Maine could be doing to prevent another Lewiston without infringing on people’s rights to a much greater extent.