The push for boilerplate ‘Red Flag’ laws that would give authorities the ability to remove firearms and deny Second Amendment rights to targeted individuals endangers the progress Maine policymakers have made, experts, lawyers and legislators from both sides of the aisle argued on Friday at the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) Institute for Legislative Action conference in Augusta.
“The problem with red flag laws is they’re harder to get (against potentially dangerous individuals) when you need them,” former Aroostook County state senator and Probate Judge Michael Carpenter said. In other words, they don’t work.
21 states have ‘Red Flag’ laws, or Extreme Risk Protective Orders (ERPO), in place. These allow law enforcement to remove firearms from an individual believed to be at risk of using them to harm others or themselves, but has not yet committed a crime. In Maine, where nearly half of all households lawfully possess at least one firearm, past efforts to impose a ‘Red Flag’ law have failed.
Well-funded national organizations seeking to restrict Second Amendment rights, like those backed by former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, have been pushing these laws into enactment across the country.
Maine is the first country in the nation to have passed a ‘Yellow Flag’ law in 2020, which differs from ‘Red Flag’ laws in its scope and approach. SAM executive director David Trahan together with Governor Janet Mills (D) and both Republican and Democrat legislators crafted the ‘Yellow Flag’ model to better address the realities and the needs for such measures, those involved in the process said on Friday.
Importantly, ‘Yellow Flag’ laws involve a qualified mental health assessment at the outset of the process, and then ensure that the targeted individual is able to access resources to address any mental or psychological challenges that are triggering the concerns of those around them. At the SAM conference, Maine State Police and a representative from Spurwink Services, which provides counseling and metal health support, presented on the cooperation they’ve forged in recent years implementing ‘Yellow Flag’ interventions.
“Red flag flags allow a person’s personal opinions to get them flagged, yellow flags do not,” Trahan explained. Such laws, he said “give a lot of power to people with political agendas.”
National Rifle Association (NRA) New England Representative Justin Davis presented recent research his organization has compiled in ‘Red Flag’ abuses in multiple states, including Florida, where children as young as seven or eight years of age are being targeted for ERPOs for firearms they cannot legally own, effectively branding them for life, he said.
“Anti-gun groups have done a fantastic job on storytelling in recent years, I really have to hand it to them,” Davis said. His presentation to the SAM conference outlined some of the significant problems ‘Red Flag’ laws pose to First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Amendment freedoms.
Echoing Trahan’s concern about the political aspect of ‘Red Flag’ laws, Davis said “just look at the outside spending we’ve seen in district attorney races here in Maine,” referencing how a George Soros-funded group injected $250,000 in the Cumberland County two years ago.
[RELATED: George Soros-backed DA Takes Office in Cumberland County]
Critics of Maine’s ‘Yellow Flag’ law point to the fact that Lewiston mass shooter Robert Card was flagged under it prior to his October 2023 murder spree, but not disarmed. Nonetheless, it has been invoked nearly 600 times since then, saving countless lives, advocates of the measure said on Thursday.
By contrast, Massachusetts’ ‘Red Flag’ law has been used only seven times in the last year, Trahan pointed out.
Given that Maine is considered a “cheap date” for outside groups pushing broad, national progressive causes, a new fight over passing ‘Red Flag’ is imminent, experts warned. Anti-gun groups have begun collecting signatures late last year and a new ballot measure is expected this November.
Watch highlights from the presentation by Justin Davis:
