The Maine Gun Safety Coalition is pushing to pass a new red flag gun law, deploying more than 500 volunteers at over 100 polling locations on election day last Tuesday. Volunteers were tasked with collecting signatures for the group’s “Safe Schools, Safe Communities” campaign.
The campaign is allegedly part of an effort to address the state’s high rate of suicide as well as gun violence in general, with the Maine Gun Safety Coalition arguing that having the extreme risk protection order, also known as a red flag law, would have prevented the Lewiston mass shooting on October 25, 2023, which left 18 people dead and 13 injured.
The executive directors of the group stress they have been pushing for a red flag law for about five years.
“I think this is a small step in the right direction toward common sense gun safety in the state, this is something that frankly the legislature tried and should have been able to pass, haven’t been able to do it, requires voters to make their voice clear,” said Xavier Botana of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition.
Opponents of the proposed red flag law argue that it can be abused to restrict an individual’s Constitutional rights without due process, which is most likely the true intention of those who seek these measures. Before you accuse me of caring more about Constitutional rights than human lives, however, I’m not saying nothing should be done, I’m just saying there are better ways.
Maine itself already has a better way. The state is currently home to the country’s only yellow flag law. Here’s how it works. Concerned relatives of a family member suffering a mental health crisis who feel he or she may be a threat to the safety and well-being of themselves or others may call law enforcement to seek an order temporarily restricting that person’s access to firearms. Law enforcement then takes the individual into temporary custody until a medical evaluation can be completed. If the results determine the person is a threat to themselves or others, the medical professional certifies that the person should not have access to firearms. At this time a court may order police to remove firearms from the person’s residence and restrict them from possessing or maintaining firearms temporarily.
The Maine Gun Safety Coalition complains the yellow flag laws are too complicated, which calls into question their intent, competence, or both. In fact, Maine Governor Janet Mills established an independent seven-member commission to investigate the Lewiston shooting. After reviewing thousands of pages of documents, gathering facts from witnesses, and conducting public meetings, the commission issued a 215-page final report in August 2024, concluding that the police and the Army Reserve missed opportunities to prevent the tragedy and that the shooter’s behavior provided sufficient evidence for the local sheriff’s office to have obtained a yellow flag order to seize his guns in September 2023, yet failed to do so.
While I recognize that some might lack trust in the integrity of yellow flag procedures, the point is that there are better ways that do not involve a no process he said, she said protocol. A quick review of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition website will paint a clear picture of what the group is all about, which is no different than any other anti-Second Amendment group, just hidden behind words like “gun safety” and “common sense.” They want to ban semi-automatic rifles, home-built firearms, and standard magazines, like all the rest of them, eroding Constitutional liberties one by one. There is nothing “common sense” about allowing people to remove the rights of individuals completely unchecked and without due process.
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