The Maine Legislature passed sweeping gun control legislation, including background checks on private gun sales, waiting periods for gun purchases, and criminalizing gun sales to prohibited people on Thursday.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and the Democratic-led Legislature pushed for a number of gun and mental health proposals following the state’s deadliest shooting that left 18 dead and 13 others injured about six months ago in Lewiston.
Most of the proposals were adopted despite the state’s strong hunting tradition and high gun ownership.
“We heard loud and clear from Mainers across our state that they wanted meaningful action to make our communities safer from violence, and I’m so proud that we had the courage to take meaningful steps that will get us closer to making that a reality,” the House assistant majority leader, Rep. Kristen Cloutier, a Democrat from Lewiston, said Thursday in a statement.
The governor is expected to sign her bill that aims to strengthen the state’s yellow flag law, increase background checks for private party sales, and make it a crime to sell a gun to someone who is prohibited from having guns, said Ben Goodman, a spokesman for the governor.
The bill also directs funding toward violence prevention initiatives and the opening of a mental health crisis center in Lewiston.
Mr. Goodman said the governor would review two additional bills that narrowly cleared the Senate on Wednesday.
The first one, known as LD 2238, would establish a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases.
“Let’s not fool ourselves,” she reportedly said. “This bill didn’t pass last session because Maine people did not want it and here we are doing the same thing over again. Nothing has changed, Madame Speaker. Maine people do not want 72-hour waiting periods.”
The other bill, known as LD 2086, would ban so-called bump stocks and other mechanical or electrical devices used to make semi-automatic guns operate more like fully automatic firearms.
11th-hour Drama
Lawmakers worked through the night and into the morning as they neared their Wednesday adjournment date, but not without some 11th-hour drama.They had to approve a contentious supplemental budget before casting their final votes. The session finally wrapped after daybreak.
Family members warned police about the Army reservist in Lewiston who went on a killing rampage on Oct. 25, 2023.
The shooter had been hospitalized for two weeks while training with his unit, and his best friend, also a reservist, warned that he believed the man was going to “snap and do a mass shooting.” The shooter committed suicide after the attack.
Survivors of the attack were mixed on the proposed legislation.
Ben Dyer, who was shot five times during the October incident, was skeptical that lawmakers were using a tragedy to fulfill their agendas.
Republicans echoed the shooting survivor’s view and accused Democrats of using the tragic event to appeal to people’s emotions to pass contentious legislation.
But Democrats claimed their constituents called on them to do something to prevent future attacks. They argued it would have been an abdication of duty to ignore their pleas.