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Maine has the Second Amendment in its crosshairs as the state Legislature is set to pass bills impacting the rights of gun-owning residents.
The Democratic-controlled House followed the Senate on Monday in approving the governor’s omnibus gun safety bill that strengthens the state’s yellow flag law, boosts background checks for private sales of guns and makes it a crime to recklessly sell a gun to a prohibited person.
The House will also consider two separate bills approved by the Senate that lengthen waiting periods for gun purchases and a ban on bump stocks.
The series of gun safety bills were introduced after a shooting spree at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston left 18 victims dead and injured more than a dozen others.
One initiative, the red flag proposal, would allow family members to petition a judge to remove guns from someone’s home. The proposal differs from the state’s current yellow flag law that puts law enforcement officers — not the individual’s parents, siblings or children — in the lead of the process.
The initiative was proposed as police were warned by family members of the shooter, an Army reservist who took his own life after the deadly rampage.
On Sept. 15, a fellow Army reservist warned authorities his friend was going “to snap and do a mass shooting.” (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Family members warned the eventual shooter was becoming paranoid and losing his grip on reality before the attack. He was hospitalized last summer while training with his Army Reserve unit.
On Sept. 15, his best friend, a fellow reservist, warned that the man was going “to snap and do a mass shooting.”
Six weeks later, he carried out the deadliest shooting in Maine history.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
