Despite hundreds of thousands of Mainers still being without power Friday following a nor’easter, Democratic lawmakers plowed ahead with a public hearing on a highly controversial “Red Flag” gun control bill.
[RELATED: Maine Dems Use Snowstorm, Power Outages as Cover to Move “Red Flag” Gun Grab Bill…]
The spring snow storm battered the state with heavy and wet snow, and with wind gusts over 50 mph that brought down trees and powerlines, resulting in more than 250,000 Mainers still being without electricity on Friday as the public hearing went on as planned.
The public hearing, initially scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, was pushed back to noon due to the storm and a delayed opening of state offices to 11 a.m. declared by Gov. Janet Mills.
The bill in question, LD 2283, sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland), would allow family or household members, law enforcement agencies, or local police officers to seek a “crisis intervention order” against someone who, they believe, presented a significant danger to themselves or the public.
Posing a significant danger is defined under the bill as having inflicted or attempted to inflict bodily harm on another person, placed another person in “reasonable fear of physical harm,” presented a danger to someone in the person’s care, or have attempted or threatened suicide or other serious bodily harm.
[RELATED: Maine Democrats Sneak in Last-Minute Gun Grab Measure…]
Under the proposed “Act to Enact the Crisis Intervention Order Act to Protect the Safety of the Public,” the Maine State Police, a county sheriff’s office, a municipal police department, and even the Maine Attorney General would be empowered to enforce the crisis intervention orders.
To be enforced the orders would first require the approval of a District Court judge, and if approved, and would require the subject of the order to voluntarily surrender their firearms to a law enforcement agency or a federally licensed firearms dealer.
The subject of the order could also be prevented to buying or possessing a firearm for up to one year.
[RELATED: Maine Dems Hold Closed-Door Meeting with ATF Official Amid Push for Stricter Gun Control Measures…]
Judiciary Committee member Rep. Jennifer Poirier, R-Skowhegan, explained during her introduction to the public that “this hearing was kept in place because of ASL interpreters being available, and also the crunch of the session.”
“But it is my hope that we are cognizant of the fact that many people in Maine are still currently without power, and wheeling from the storm, and not able to join us in other manners,” Rep. Poirier said, adding that she hoped the Committee would table the bill at the end of the hearing to allow for another opportunity for public testimony next week.
Introducing her bill before the Committee, House Speaker Talbot Ross said that “the epidemic of gun violence requires leadership, urgent leadership, and a comprehensive approach to public health and safety.”
Referring to Maine’s current “Yellow Flag” law, the House Speaker said police told her the law is “cumbersome” and that “Mainers have asked that further steps be taken towards a path for removing firearms from those who should not have them.”
The current law requires that an individual be taken into protective custody and undergo an evaluation by a medical professional prior to police petitioning a judge to have that individual’s firearms removed.
Democratic lawmakers and gun control advocates have argued that Maine’s current “Yellow Flag” law was not sufficient to prevent the Oct. 25 mass shootings in Lewiston.
[RELATED: New Video of Lewiston Shooter Confronted by Police Three Months Before Shooting…]
Republicans have countered that the Independent Commission investigating the shooting found in their recent interim report that law enforcement had “sufficient probable cause” to remove the shooter Robert Card’s firearms weeks before the shooting under Maine’s current “Yellow Flag” law.
“Robert Card Jr. is solely responsible for his own conduct, and he may have committed a mass shooting even if the guns he possessed in September 2023 were removed from his house,” the report stated. “Nevertheless, there were several opportunities that, if taken, may have changed the course of events.”
[RELATED: Cases Less Severe Than Robert Card Triggered Maine’s Yellow Flag Law Firearm Restrictions…]
The Independent Commission’s report further argued that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) erred in delegating the responsibility to Card’s family to remove Robert Card’s firearms, and did not follow up to ensure that the firearms had been removed and safely secured.
When pressed by Sen. Eric Brakey (R-Androscoggin) on whether or not she was disagreeing with the conclusion of the Independent Commission, Talbot Ross said that she “would not question their conclusion.”
“If it sounded as if I was intimating that, then that is an error,” Talbot Ross told Sen. Brakey.
According to the House Speaker, her proposed “Red Flag” bill would “work alongside” the current Yellow Flag law, and would “provide additional tools” to family or household members to directly petition a court for a crisis intervention order.
[RELATED: Troy Jackson Backs Gun Control After Gun Control Group Hires His Son’s Firm…]
As one of her proposed amendments to the bill, which Talbot Ross said she would present to the Committee in the coming days, she suggested replacing the term “firearm” in the bill to the more expansive “dangerous weapon.”
The term “dangerous weapon,” as defined in state law, covers not only firearms but any other “weapon, device, instrument, material or substance, whether animate or inanimate, which, in the manner it is used or threatened to be used is capable of producing death or serious bodily injury.”
Talbot Ross also hinted at an amendment which would require courts to find “clear and convincing” evidence of a person posing a significant danger to themselves or others, rather than the currently proposed standard of a preponderance of evidence.
Sen. Brakey later asked Talbot Ross to explain what protections are included in her “Red Flag” bill that ensure it would not be used to “target minorities on an individual basis in the future.”
“I must admit, I’m not quite sure where you’re going with that question, Senator,” Talbot Ross responded. “I’m not seeing where the propensity for any abuse — any abuse of this law would be able to take shape based on a racial composition.”
Brakey rephrased the question, explaining that “Red Flag” laws take a more “lax approach” to due process rights.
“Without those strong due process requirements, there is potentially some subjectivity in who becomes a target of that,” Brakey said, adding that many gun control policies in the past have been used to remove guns from minority populations.
“I’m asking how we ensure that if we’re putting gun control policies like these in place, how we ensure that these laws don’t get used in a similar manner that they’ve been used historically,” Brakey asked the House Speaker.
Talbot Ross said that there’s no evidence of widespread filing of false petitions for crisis prevention orders, and that the severity of the crime (Class D) for petitioning for an order fraudulently is the same as it would be for an individual to break the crisis intervention order itself.
“I don’t see where there’s any room within in this bill for what you suggest to take place,” she told Brakey.
Other gun control legislation proposed by Maine Democrats during this session include 72-hour waiting periods, increased regulation of “ghost guns” and bump stocks, facilitating the destruction of forfeited firearms, research into firearm suicide prevention programs, and building a statewide network of crisis receiving centers.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27212 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27212">8 Comments
They did not even follow the yellow flag law with the Lewiston shooting. Criminals do not care about laws
Maine Demoncrats have always been detached from reality and constantly focus on taking away the rights of legal, law abiding gun owners. Still waiting for the Demoncrats to actually do something that works on gun control like bigger penalties for illegal possession and using an illegal gun in a crime but this would lock up too many Democratic constituents. The bill should also require that all existing gun laws actually be enforced because they aren’t now because it would require too many Democratic constituents to be locked up.
Dangerous weapon???? I guess they better take my rolling pin and cast iron frying pan,,,,
They want law abiding citizens disarmed.
This bill is unconstitutional.
It allows search and seizure of anything they determine can be used as a weapon from our homes.
It allows vindictive, angry people to sic the law on anyone they don’t like.
It opens all kinds of tyrannical doorways for these leftists.
And as others have rightly pointed out, criminals don’t care about laws.
That’s why they’re called criminals.
I would suggest that if Ross is the sponsor of gun legislation there is no good in it.
The Secetary of State , A. Bliken, parents are big supporters lefety Georage Sorois giving $1000,000,000’s to his group.
If you are in a bad situation and don’t have a gun to protect yourself, you are not in control. That is what communists and Dems want. They don’t want you or me to be in control. It isn’t about the guns at all. If it were, they would enforce the laws that exist. It is about government control. Everything the Dems do is about control. Green policies, school indoctrination, tax policy, health policy,
Funny,t he democrats “yellow flag” law did not work, never will, so lets jack it up to “red flag”, you know so my soon to be ex can bust my a$$ even more, then you have Ms Ross who is as dirty as they come, just count heads and vote when the number are in your favor.