On Tuesday the Maine Legislature’s Judiciary Committee will hold a work session on a bill sponsored by State Rep. Rebecca Millett (D-Cape Elizabeth) that would establish civil liability for firearm manufacturers and distributers who engaged in illegal sales or marketing.
Rep. Millett’s bill, LD 1696, is a revision of a version she sponsored during the last legislative session, which sought to create a civil cause of action for individuals who have suffered damages arising from the sale of “abnormally dangerous firearms.”
During a May public hearing on LD 1696, however, Millett struggled to clearly define the terms “abnormally dangerous” and “assault style weapons” when pressed by Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris).
In a sponsor’s amendment to LD 1696, which the Judiciary Committee is set to discuss during their Tuesday work session, Millett removes any mention of “abnormally dangerous” firearms, and instead targets manufacturers and distributers who sell to prohibited individuals or illegally market their products.
Under Millett’s bill, prohibited conduct for firearm manufacturers and distributers would be to sell or market a firearm-related product in a manner which promotes illegal conversion or modification, the sale or marketing of a firearm-related product to prohibited persons or minors, and any sales or marketing that is done in an “unconscionable, unscrupulous, oppressive or deceptive” manner.
Another section of the amendment requires firearm industry members to establish “reasonable controls” to prevent illegal sales to prohibited persons, straw purchasers or firearm traffickers, prevent theft, and to comply with all relevant state and federal laws.
Any person who has suffered damages in Maine that are “proximately caused” by a violation of the prohibitions listed above on the part of a firearm industry member, would be allowed under Millett’s bill to bring an action for the recovery of those damages — plus injunctive relief and attorney’s fees — against that firearm industry member.
Millett’s bill would disallow individuals who suffered damages from their use of a firearm-related product in the commission of a crime or tort, or used a firearm-related product to “intentionally or recklessly inflict or cause a self-injury,” from bringing legal action against the manufacturer.
The bill also permits the Maine Attorney General’s Office to conduct an investigation of firearm industry members who they suspect of engaging in conduct which violates the prohibitions, and to seek injunctive relief and a civil penalty of a minimum of $25,000, up to a maximum of $100,000 per violation.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey recently signed onto a letter alongside 19 other attorneys general which calls for the banning from civilian use of 5.56 ammunition manufactured by Lake City Army Ammunition Plant for its use by certain mass shooters.
[RELATED: Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey Signs Letter Urging Ban On Civilian Use of 5.56 Ammunition…]
In response to Millett’s revised bill, Rep. John Andrews issued the following the statement to the Maine Wire Monday afternoon:
“The state had a holiday in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but Rebecca Millett couldn’t take the day off from oppressing Mainers gun rights by dropping this entirely new bill on the committee a day before the vote.
You would think that someone so stridently in support of the Ukrainian Zelelensky regime – A regime that recently tortured an American journalist to death, by the way – That she would understand that the civilian ownership of modern muskets is one of the things that keep this country free and exceptional.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t and wants to use the tyranny of the majority in Augusta to disarm law abiding Mainers. It’s despicable and totally a Putin-esque move.”
Read Rep. Rebecca Millett’s most recent amendment to LD 1696 below:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="24675 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=24675">22 Comments
We’re going to squeeze the living hell out of right wing nut jobs who own guns. Maine is proving to be more Progressive than even Washington & Oregon. Step by step, day by day, we march over your damn constitution till it’s ground to dust. There is a reason the youth are flooding our ranks and the right looks like a geriatric bingo competition. Suck it up buttercups.
Is Ethan from The Cape in the room?
We the marxists also have guns. We have so many guns. We go to all of our queer rallies and reveal forest fires armed for war with our perpetual enemy. Law abiding gun owners. We seek to destroy law abiding gun ownership so that only illegal gun ownership will exist. This tactic has worked wonderfully with drugs. Note all the legal chemical products in your kitchen that clearly label that misuse of the chemical in a way not intended by the manufacture is a huuuge crime, now no one makes drugs out of household chemicals lawfully. Now it is only done unlawfully. We the marxists are winning the war on rationality. Soon only illegal migrants from Romania will own weapons of reveal forest fires.
“Rep. Millett’s bill, LD 1696, is a revision of a version she sponsored during the last legislative session, which sought to create a civil cause of action for individuals who have suffered damages arising from the sale of “abnormally dangerous firearms.”
…”abnormally dangerous firearms”!? You mean the ones that fire bullets!? OMG! Has this troglodyte even seen a real firearm, aka, a gun!? Maybe she has read they are dangerous…I mean abnormally dangerous! I bet abnormally dangerous firearms are used in real wars too! 😂
What kind of person votes for these nut jobs? Cape Elizabeth, are you listening? Is it the water there?
Wow isn’t that a crazy looking critter. Typical mindless democrat in Maine, especially from southern Maine where they grow em.
I doubt that any local commies have ever read any history books. Too bad for them. History is a good teacher and predictor of the future. Communism was defeated after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Eastern Europe in the late 80’s. Communism was particularly virulent in Romania. ……..”The Ceaușescu regime became more and more anachronistic in the context of changes sweeping the region at the end of the 1980s.”…….
Ceaușescu and his wife, long time communist tyrants, were executed by firing squad at the end, paying for their crimes against humanity. Communism has been responsible for hundreds of millions of murders on the planet in the last 100 yrs. It is always a pleasure to see former commie tyrants pay the price they deserve for their tyranny. It will not be any different in America. Decent folks with a moral compass can only be pushed so far before they will fight back. Communism will not succeed in America as it has failed everywhere it has been tried.
Don’t we already have laws and rules that covers these things? ENFORCE EXISTING LAWS! Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Yeah Lewiston would not have happened if the military and Maine Law enforcement had followed their own rules/laws. But you won’t see Maine marxists losing a chance to push an anti gun agenda.
Bring it on corn hole Marxist pig . Oh BTW, that’s for the expose ‘e
Those such as Conner display their personal hatred of themselves by attacking those who when looked upon do not reflect the image of virtue that those such as Conner believe that they embody.
As an example: yesterday I made breakfast sandwiches for my wife and myself that had sausage made from a pig that was raised on the next road over from me, local eggs, and bagels from a local shop. In my freezer often can be found deer, moose, wild turkey, or other wild game. I raise my own fowl, have a garden, and preserve my own foods. So it might be asked what does this all amount too?
When a leftist looks upon a non leftist they see someone who is self sufficient that does not want, need, or rely upon big brother government to assemble the pieces of life together for them. Seeing this is akin to the Snow White Mirror when it responds to the wicked queen that she is no longer the fairest in the land.
Conservatives are a constant reminder of how pathetic the leftist, and their movement truly are, and the ugliness that the leftist embody. So rather than embarking on a self review, they strike out at those who stand against the illusion, the matrix reality that the leftist reside within.
This current time in US history is a sequel to the German Weimar Republic with many of the same causes and symptoms, and if allowed to continue on, the same end results. The reason that no entity of WW2 ever attacked the continental US is the same as today as America with its private gun ownership is the largest unofficial standing army anywhere on this globe. So if the Japanese army, the German Army, and any affiliated with these never attacked the continental US because they knew that a gun would be behind every tree, and that they would not stand a chance of defeating this unofficial standing army: how is it that the leftist feel that they will succeed in todays world in removing the guns from Americans hands?
Conner rants are the last cries of an already defeated movement as unlike the past when the leftist actions were done covertly, and had their MSM to cover for them; President Trump has,and continues to show their corruption which is now not able to operate with its shadowed impunity that it has enjoyed for many years. The masses are waking up, the leftist narrative has collapsed, and they are terrified as the day of accountability is nearing. And what will make this the sweetest of victories is that the leftist have destroyed themselves.
Representative Rebecca Millet got a terrible bill written by the lawyers at Any Town USA and is now passing it off as her own. Easy peasy.
This just once again highlights the obvious difference between progressives and conservatives. The former bases all decisions in their emotions….how they feel. Their bodies are being attacked from within after 72 vaccine shots, years of being on SSRIs, Adderall and Ritalin to treat the ADHD, OCD and anxiety. Their brains are toast which explains why these useful idiots are incapable of critical thinking. Their hive mentality and reliance on the collective are because they can’t function on their own. Nobody needs them or wants them so they create their own delusional existence where they think their opinion matters. It doesn’t.
Wonder if she ever heard of 15 USC Ch. 105: PROTECTION OF LAWFUL COMMERCE IN ARMS stupid Can’t Understand Normal Thinking.
Do all democrats look like idiots as much as this fool does or is she an unusual case? I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, anyone who has ever actually tried to do something has. But I sure never would want to do anything that would get me near this fool.
I always question motive especially from someone who is STILL wearing a facial diaper that doesn’t protect her from a virus but can certainly give her bacterial pneumonia.
Conner Venezuela is calling for you.
Another mindless, poorly thought out attack on gun rights and gun manufacturers. The real illegal gun problem is with stolen and foreign made guns that are sold on the black market almost everywhere in the state which this does nothing to stop. This is the type of legislation that liberals pass so they can feel good about themselves even though it does nothing to solve an actual problem.
Mainers that keep voting for these loony Dems because it’s virtue signaling or you can brag to friends that you voted that way to stop Trump! You are a liability to yourselves because at some point these commies will come for you … guess what , you’ll be looking for the good ol boys you demonize now to save you… we ain’t coming..
So when illegal migrants commit crimes we can now claim the cost can be paid by the democrat/commie bunch?. Who brings in big strong criminals to a state full of old folks and then tries to illegally disarm natives, which is against our law. Criminals do. Shall not be infringed upon is the bit in the gun ownership part. And where are these black market guns? I can’t find them anywhere. Who charges these commies with theft of taxes, etc aiding and abetting illegal migration? When Jannie was put in to subvert Lepage I saw the beginnings of our destruction. The real neo nazi camp is in Augusta.
I wish all Mainers peace and prosperity.
I understand that 10 or so people can be helped where they come from for the cost to us of helping 1 here. Dems know this. But they can’t vote for dems back there, so they must be brought here to bleed us dry.
I just have to say that mask the fool is wearing is indeed a breeding ground for disease the second time its worn. Let it sit for a spell someplace warm , put it on and breath deeply. Game on. There are many articles online penned by doctors on the dangers of mask wearing. Oxygen dep, germ breeding, increased monoxides in the blood. The cloth ones like hers are the worst, Girl, wear it once and dispose of it and use a clean one every time. It does hid her facewell. How many vacs does she have?Fresh air and sunshine is best.
Long live the republic!
@BillW, no one is going to be seeking the “good o’ boys”. HA HA HA. One thing the past 5 years have shown us is that those on the right are cowards and have no spine. We’re walking all over you. There is no hidden right wing army. In the past year the Biden Administration has locked up the leaders and local leaders of ALL the major militias in the country. Proud Boys, 3%ers, Oath Keepers, Patriot Prayer, etc. They are all gone for 15-20 years in federal prison.
We did this without a single peep from the so-called “good o’ boys”.
Our side has the courage and conviction. Your side is all talk and no bite. You sit idly on Facebook and complain about us as we Dismantle the USA.
Connor, get it right, your pathetic pals don’t believe in law, they make it up as they go, or play entrapment. I admit the right has allowed you leftist to continue to exist by abiding with the law, it most likely a terrible mistake that has allowed this state of despair. What is the most disturbing is how you leftist act like it’s a game and that winning at any cost is okay. Destroying children with twisted educational instruction, passing unconstitutional bills into law and taking a gleeful outlook on others suffering. So, it makes me wonder what kind of a dysfunctional mentality it takes to have pride in these action? To be consumed in the suffering of others, no honor, no moral compass, you can pretend to have honor it’s a facade, harming innocent people and children tells the story.
Hey Connor -Your mom just called you for dinner.