Here we go again. More out-of-state money pouring into Maine to help us country-bumkins stay alive and save us from ourselves. It is absolutely amazing our parents and their parents made it this far without Michael Bloomberg’s help. After all, who better to assist us with the long, time-honored tradition and heritage of gun ownership in Maine than someone from New York City…
The snake oil salesmen are out in full force on this one. It is rumored that they are spending upwards of $5,000,000 in Maine on this campaign, and $5 million buys a LOT of propaganda.
They are selling it as “Reasonable” and the only interest is keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and unauthorized persons while in fact it is extremely unreasonable, and it will only affect law-abiding citizens. While it does not deal with the underground, black-market trade, it extensively changes the way those of us who follow the law live and creates several “Traps” for us by placing legal land mines in spots we would NEVER imagine.
While the propaganda will tell us this is about selling guns, it is actually about every single transfer of a gun, and would even make it illegal to let a buddy borrow a hunting rifle or shotgun during hunting season.
Imagine being at hunting camp and having a childhood friend visiting for a family hunting trip. This law will make it illegal to let him borrow a firearm unless you drive to his hunting location, hand him the firearm and pick it up there again after the day is done. Anything outside of this minute exemption, such as allowing them to leave hunting camp with your firearm, makes you BOTH criminals.
Think about this for a minute. How many people will be able to leave hunting camp to search out a gun shop who will charge you to accept your firearm into their inventory and conduct a background check in order to let you loan it to your cousin? You must also go to gun shop to have the firearm brought back into their inventory to be approved once again to receive your firearm back! If not, you are BOTH criminals. Yeah, this is all about “reasonable” background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Sure…
How about the defacto ban on purchasing a pistol, any pistol, if you are under 21 years of age. That’s right. You can apply for and receive a Maine Carry Permit at 18 years old, but unless your parent purchases a firearm as a gift for you, (no, not with your money because that will now be an illegal straw purchase) you will not be able to have one.
Currently there are avenues 18-20 year olds can take to purchase a handgun legally, but under this new law, they will be completely shut down. What are we going to tell all the young men and women entering the Maine Criminal Justice Academy who can’t legally buy a duty pistol anymore? There is no exemption for a young adult entering the law enforcement career field, even during the age that most students usually apply. But that’s OK, this referendum is about criminals…
All you have to do is follow the money to see why we are having this problem in need of the current “solution” from away. There is statistically no home-grown support for this, as evidenced by the numerous paid-to-protest employees needed to solicit signatures to qualify for the ballot.
There were not even enough Maine residents interested to volunteer their time to get this on the ballot. Almost $750,000 was spent just to qualify for consideration, and most of the circulators were college kids and paid professional signature gatherers working during the busy holidays for extra money.
Since it made its way through the Secretary of State’s office, the money has really started pouring in. According to the latest report, over $2.1 million has been spent in Maine by Bloomberg and his cronies while under $5,500 has come in from all other sources.
So, the best case scenario is a maximum of a quarter of a percent from Maine residents (0.025%) and 99.75% from “away” …yet they call themselves “Mainers for Responsible Gun Ownership” … Mainers, huh?
For more information about the unintended consequences of this Universal Background Check fiasco, please click here.
