The Maine Gun Safety Coalition (MGSC) is hosting a protest Wednesday morning at the Maine State House to pressure lawmakers to pass new restrictions on firearms, using the Oct. 25 mass shooting in Lewiston to reinvigorate a gun control agenda that has stalled under Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.
“Mainers from across the state will descend on the State House in Augusta to demand that our legislators pass strong gun safety legislation in the legislative session that begins that day,” the MGSC said on its website.
The protest, the Gun Safety Day of Action, is intended to convince the legislature to enact “common sense” gun laws, including background checks on private transfers, a three-day waiting period to buy a gun, “red flag” laws, and a ban on so-called assault weapons.
Maine already has a Yellow Flag gun control law, which would have allowed law enforcement to remove firearms from Lewiston shooter Robert R. Card, Jr.’s possession; however, the gun control law was never used despite months of indications that Card was a prime candidate for Yellow Flag procedures.
The MGSC protest is also supported by various medical groups, such as the Maine Medical Association (MMA) and the Maine Association of Physician Assistants (MAPA).
These groups claim that a vast majority of Mainers support their gun-control laws, despite nearly 47 percent of Maine adults having a firearm in their homes.
“After the massacre in Lewiston, it’s time for our legislators to hear from the vast majority of Mainers, who WANT these bills,” the MMA said in a statement.
The firearm rights advocacy group, Gun Owners of Maine (GOM) denied the MGSC’s claim that the majority of Mainers support their gun control agenda.
“We know that the vast majority of Mainers want no such thing and will be there to advocate for gun rights,” said GOM on Facebook.
GOM asked its supporters to show up for the protest as well, hoping that the Gun Safety Day of Action will ultimately draw more gun-rights activists than gun-control supporters.
The dueling protests will be held on January 3, the first day of Maine’s 2024 legislative session, at the state’s capitol in Augusta at 9:30am.
U.S Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, recently proposed new national gun-control measures to restrict magazine capacity to 10 rounds and ban removable magazines.
[RELATED: Angus King Introduces Bill Banning Certain Types of Guns, Limiting Magazine Capacity…]
Similarly, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who had long opposed gun-control legislation, has changed his position in response to the Lewiston shooting.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="24004 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=24004">8 Comments
If local police had the courage to confront this person before the shooting, this would not have happened. Too bad you have coward cops in maine.
Background checks on private transfers are meant to prevent you from leaving your firearms to your descendants. They want to dry up gun ownership over time in Maine. If you have a gun collection of say 20 firearms and want to leave them to your son, they will make your estate transfer through a licensed gun dealer. Next will be limits of number of transfers per year. That will prevent estates from leaving the collections to descendants.
Local, state and federal authorities all failed in their duties relating to Robert Card. Was this on purpose, to move forward this agenda?? The more I see what has come from it, the more I’m starting to thinking so.
Also, this is not what Mainers want. It’s what out-of-staters that have come to maine want. Well they can’t have it. We will not abide.
Disarming the law-abiding simply means that only the crooks (& the gov’t–pardon any redundancy) will have guns.
Our senators & “representatives” HAVE ARMED GUARDS. Will the rest of us be allowed to?
And, Mr. Card, who unfortunately is now unable to provide his side of the story (isn’t that always the way with these mass-shootings?) may have been a Targeted Individual, “hearing voices in his head”, possibly (we are informed by other Targeted Individuals from their personal experience) promised his freedom from the targeting if he followed their orders. This secret remote torturing of individuals needs to END.
…I already have strict red flag laws imposed on all my weapons. They have promised to never leave the gun case unless I’ve asked them. They will never self load, self aim or self fire unless I’m holding them. In fact, they feel quite comfortable in the case and have also promised to never go out aimlessly by themselves! I believe them!
The military officials and and local law enforcement are also responsible for the mass shooting in Lewiston. Is Robert Card being used as a “pawn” to push the agenda of the elite and George Soros? Yes, Robert Card is guilty, so is our Government and local enforcement. If they were doing their job and swore an oath to protect the citizens of Maine, no life would have been taken. The last 4 years we have seen the corruption of the Federal and State Government being control by the ‘Elite Billionaires”. Just follow the money! The Elite do not care about any of us including our Federal and State Government. Mainers need to stick together to keep from losing our freedom.
I’m betting these same Leftist activists have no issues with full term abortions or mandating untested C-19 “vaccines” that cause injury and death.
It is reported elsewhere that billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s anti 2nd Amendment organization is funding today’s rally and financially supporting week kneed Jared Golden. Maine is a battleground for out of state funded organizations and no longer listening to real Mainers. Money talks.
Maine Wire…please expose all the groups who are behind this initiative.