Maine’s Judiciary Committee is pushing forward with its plan to hold a public hearing on a controversial gun-control bill as hundreds of thousands of Mainers are without power from a blizzard.
The bill, LD 2283, would change Maine’s current “yellow flag” law into a much stricter “red flag” law, which will make it easier for the state to seize someone’s firearms.
Under the new bill, a judge would be able to remove someone’s firearms if a family member raises concerns. In some cases, firearms can be removed before the gun owner is given a hearing.
Under the Act, a petition for a crisis intervention order, which restrains the purchase, possession or control of a firearm, may be sought if a person is suspected of posing a significant danger of causing severe harm to the person or to another person.
LD 2238 Summary
[RELATED: Maine Democrats Sneak in Last-Minute Gun Grab Measure…]
The hearing was scheduled to be held at 9 am on Friday morning, as over 300 thousand Maine households remain without power, and Central Maine Power (CMP) believes that the restoration process will carry into next week.
After Gov. Janet Mills issued a proclamation delaying the opening of state offices until 11 am due to hazardous travel conditions and power outages, the hearing was moved to 12 pm, one hour after the office re-opens.
Last week, Republicans were outraged when Senate Democrats decided to push forward the “red-flag” bill at the last minute and hold a public hearing with limited notice to the public itself. At that time, Senator Anne Carney was unable to provide any details on when the hearing would be scheduled.
“I think it’s absolutely absurd that on March 28 we’re referencing major substantive public policy to committee in which a public hearing is going to be held with little or no notice to the public,” said Sen. Matt Harrington (R-York).
Republicans feared that the last-minute hearing would result in low public attendance for the hearing, which will significantly expand the State’s gun-control laws.
Now, those fears seem even more likely to come to fruition.
Additionally, this eleventh-hour bill comes as Democrats have pushed a slew of other gun control measures, including a bill that would essentially be a workaround to universal background checks.
Read our reporting on those measures:
This story was updated to include the postponed date after Gov. Mills delayed the opening of offices.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27192 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27192">3 Comments
Too bad Maine Wire is the only media source in the state that has the spine or wherewithal to call out RTR for the sneaky, evil person she is.
Why are the Demoncrats always trying to take away the rights of law abiding gun owners? There must be a hearing in front of a Judge before any guns are removed. Most of the claims about someone being dangerous are made by wacky liberals who don’t know what they are talking about.
…lol, under the cover of storms, night and rocks, Democrats will once again pass legislation without any public or Republican input, because doing so would shed light on their insane policies.
The recent mass shootings (yes, plural) have pointed the finger at the supposed ‘yellow flag’ laws, in numerous localities across the country, which have been in effect for some time and neglected by the resources meant to implement them.
‘Red flag’ laws merely take the responsibility of enforcement away from important entities who should have intervened to begin with, down to the donut eating cops who who will act on a phone call from some disgruntled ex-spouse or employee or anyone seeking retribution for any disagreement that may arise in the course of life.
‘Red flag’ laws set a dangerous precedent that will only be made worse with inept enforcement… like how the ‘yellow flag’ laws were upheld!