Advocates of gun control measures often speak of a “cooling off period” — usually in reference to a delay on firearm purchases — but after a heated debate on the Maine State Senate floor Wednesday night, Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) said he thought it best to his counterparts across the aisle the rest of the night to think about where their steadfast refusal to hold a public hearing on an initiative-proposed “Red Flag” law might lead.
“No matter which way you look at this, they lose,” Sen. Stewart said in a Thursday morning press conference in the State House. “On the constitution they lose, on legislative rules they lose, on the statute they lose,” he said in response to arguments and prospective arguments the majority party has or might make in further refusing to hold a public hearing on a bill to impose a “Red Flag,” or Extreme Risk Protective Orders (ERPOs) that would allow law enforcement to seize firearms without due process.
Maine currently has a “Yellow Flag” law in place that establishes a procedure for removing a legally-possessed firearm from someone deemed a risk to themselves or others.
[RELATED: Maine Gun Owners Leery of Rising Red Flag Campaign Six Months Before November Referendum]
Stewart said Republicans are ready to pursue all available options to subject the proposed “Red Flag” bill to public review, including emergency Sine Die adjournment of the legislature that still has two weeks left on the calendar and a large number of bills and other business — including a budget that the Democrats have yet to release — to finish.
Meanwhile, guns right groups are taking legal action on the matter. The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and the Gun Owners of Maine announced Wednesday evening that they are pursuing legal action against Maine Democratic legislative leadership on the question. On Thursday, they were joined by the National Rifle Association.
“Progressive Portland politicians are forcing taxpayers to foot the bill to defend their unlawful efforts to silence the voices of Maine gun owners. The NRA is proud to join the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and Gun Owners of Maine in a legal challenge demanding a statutorily mandated public hearing on Michael Bloomberg’s radical ‘Red Flag’ referendum. To Speaker Fecteau, Senate President Daughtry, and Chair Carney, our message is simple: we will see you in court,” NRA Institute for Legislative Action John Commerford said in a statement.
Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) is a central figure in blocking the hearing. Sen. Carney is also a leading member of the Gun Safety Coalition of Maine, the gun control group behind the “Red Flag” initiative.
While Governor Janet Mills (D) has opposed such measures in the past, there remains some question on how the legislature’s presiding officers — House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) and Senate President Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland) — who both hail from southern Maine will come down in the face of what is reported to be internal pressure from Democrats to overrule Carney’s apparently undemocratic power play, likely on behalf on Michael Bloomberg-backed national gun control groups.
[RELATED: Shenna Bellows Releases Final Questions Wording for Voter ID Referendum Question]
Anti-gun groups have gathered enough signatures to put a “Red Flag” question on November’s ballot — an issue right now is what the enabling law would say should that referendum prove successful. Given Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellow’s willingness to shape the language of ballot questions in highly partisan, polarizing and at time misrepresentative terms, the substance of the bill in question becomes even more important to Mainers who value their gun rights.
Maine has one of America’s highest per capita rates of gun ownership as well as one of the country’s lowest rates of violent crime involving firearms.
