On April 29, Democratic Maine Governor, Janet Mills, said she would allow a bill requiring a waiting period for gun purchases to become law without her signature by letting a 10-day period pass without signing or vetoing the bill (presumably so it’s not on her record).
The bill is one of two anti-gun proposals being floated, the other is a ban on bump stocks which she vetoed. The new 72-hour waiting period law will go into effect this summer and is likely to have negative impacts on commerce for those who conduct guided hunts and other recreational outdoor activities.
Both bills were reflexive actions from the liberal, anti-gun community in the aftermath of the Lewiston shooting in October of last year.
“This law represents important, meaningful progress, without trampling on anybody’s rights, and it will better protect public safety by implementing reasonable reforms and by significantly expanding mental health resources,” Mills said.
Maine House of Representatives Republican leader, Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, objected to the bill. “House Republicans have voiced ongoing support for strengthening Maine’s so-called yellow flag law and mental health services, but oppose the governor’s bill,” Faulkingham said, adding, “The unenforceable background check provision will only create confusion among law-abiding Mainers.”
The Maine government moved to harden its extreme risk protection order laws (ERPO) with new powers provided to law enforcement with the Governor’s order last week:
The law will, “…allow law enforcement to seek a protective custody warrant signed by a judge, in unusual circumstances, to take a person into protective custody, providing them with another tool to use at their discretion to take dangerous people into custody to remove their weapons.”
In addition, a bevy of new anti-civil liberties legislation will follow similar to that in other states:
- Extending National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to Advertised, Private Sales (previously lawful)
- Incentivizing NICS Checks for Unadvertised, Private Sales (read, easier to prosecute the seller in a legitimate gun sale if the buyer commits a crime)
- Establishing an Office of Violence Prevention at the Maine CDC (often a government-funded data collection program that is facially anti-Second Amendment)
- Promoting Safe Firearm Storage (which cannot be enforced except for intrusive methods)
- Enhancing Funding for Extreme Risk Protection Order Assessments (self explanatory)
Despite all these measures, Army Reservist and Lewiston shooter, Robert Card, spent time in a psychiatric facility in New York, and was known by both the military and law enforcement to have made credible threats prior to the shooting. The Army directed that while on duty, he shouldn’t be allowed to have a weapon, handle ammunition or participate in live-fire activity. It also declared him to be non-deployable.
