Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Friday signed into law her proposed legislation to expand background checks to advertised firearm sales and strengthen the states “yellow flag” law.
The bill, LD 2224, entitled “An Act to Strengthen Public Safety by Improving Maine’s Firearm Laws and Mental Health System,” was announced by Gov. Mills during her January State of the State Address as her proposed legislative response to the tragic Oct. 25 mass shootings in Lewiston.
While state law formerly only mandated background checks for sales conducted through federally licensed dealers, the governor’s legislation now expands background checks to be legally required for all private gun sales advertised online or in print, including Uncle Henry’s and online market places.
[RELATED: Firearm Industry Threatens Exodus Over Proposed Maine Bill Allowing Lawsuits Against Manufacturers…]
Mills’ legislation also makes a change to Maine’s “yellow flag” law, which came under close scrutiny after the Lewiston shootings, that will allow law enforcement to seek a protective custody warrant signed by a judge in “unusual circumstances,” in order to take “dangerous people” into custody and remove their weapons.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature stopped short of taking up a “red flag” law proposed by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) before adjourning last week, which would have even further empowered the state to remove a person’s access to firearms.
The Independent Commission charged by Gov. Mills with investigating the circumstances surrounding the Lewiston shootings found that law enforcement had “sufficient probable cause” to take the shooter, Robert Card, into protective custody, but failed to do so.
Republican state lawmakers pointed to the Independent Commission’s findings as evidence that the state’s current gun control measures would have been sufficient to stop the Lewiston shooting had the laws been properly enforced.
Mills signed the legislation just one day after the six-month anniversary of the Lewiston shootings, calling the measures taken by her bill “practical” and “common-sense.”
“Violence is not a simple problem, nor is the remedy a single, simple measure. The measures in this law are not extreme or unusual, or a cookie cutter version of another’s state’s laws,” Gov. Mills said Friday. “They are practical, common-sense measures that are Maine-made and true to our culture and our longstanding traditions while meeting today’s needs.”
“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. “One day after the six-month anniversary of the tragedy, I am proud to say that we have taken this prudent action.”
[RELATED: Cases Less Severe Than Robert Card Triggered Maine’s Yellow Flag Law Firearm Restrictions…]
Other measures included in the bill and funded through the supplemental budget are establishing an “Office of Violence Prevention” at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC), that will work as a central data hub about suicides and homicides statewide to inform prevention measures, as well as the construction of three new crisis receiving centers in Lewiston, Penobscot County and Aroostook County.
Still awaiting possible signatures from Gov. Mills are two other gun control measures proposed by Democratic lawmakers during the second legislative session — a 72-hour waiting period on firearm purchases, and a bump stock ban.
