Maine Lawmakers Use Brown Shooting to Pat Themselves on the Back for Nothing

Maine had long been something of an anomaly. It was a very blue state with pretty pro-gun laws. It was one of two New England states I was willing to consider living in because of those gun laws, even if I didn’t like most other measures the state passed.

Following the Lewiston shooting, though, anti-gunners in the state had everything they needed to finally push through a lot of laws they’d long wanted but couldn’t get.

That included a red flag law that the voters had previously rejected.

In the wake of the Brown shooting, though, many of those lawmakers took the opportunity to celebrate their own self-importance by making it all about them and what they’ve done.

At a vigil in Brunswick, Maine, focusing on the Brown University shooting, current and former Pine Tree State lawmakers took to the podium to brag about laws that they’ve managed to pass in their home state. And since the statements were made at a vigil for the Brown University attack, they must believe those laws could have stopped the murderer.

However, a closer look revealed that not a single one of the laws would have had any effect on the shooter getting his guns or attacking people in a classroom during a study session.

According to a report at Maine Public Radio, Maine lawmakers at the vigil touted the recent passage of their so-called “red-flag” law, which allows law enforcement to confiscate guns from Maine citizens without due process. However, there’s no indication that such a law would have made any difference in the Brown University murders. In fact, no media outlet has reported that the guy seemed suspicious to any family, friends or neighbors.

Lawmakers also touted the state’s new “ghost gun” law, which bans firearms that don’t have a serial number. Gov. Janet Mills recently let that new law take effect without her signature, hardly a rousing endorsement.

Again, however, there is no indication that the murderer at Brown University used a handgun without a serial number. Again, gun-ban advocates at the vigil were simply spouting off about laws that could have made no difference at all.

So yeah, they’re patting themselves on the back over absolutely nothing. Not a single thing they passed would have done anything to have stopped the Brown shooting, at least based on what the general public is aware of at this moment. Since there’s no chance state lawmakers in Maine are privy to more than we are, that means they’re just preening for the press.

For all their lambasting of “thoughts and prayers,” the truth is that the people who say those words actually mean them, while anti-gunners use the bodies of the slain as a soapbox from which to not just demand gun control laws that wouldn’t have stopped the shooting, but they want anyway. This is just the same kind of thing, only more celebratory.

It’s disgusting.

It’s even more transparent as to what they’re doing since it was a vigil for the Brown University shooting. It wasn’t a gun control rally or anything else. This was a time to remember and mourn.

But for all their criticisms of people who offer thoughts and prayers, they have nothing except politics and bile toward the Second Amendment and anyone who stands for it.

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