NEWS

Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Cancels AR Safety Class

As some of our members have asked our response to this issue, we will address it knowing that while GOME is a one-issue entity, that of Gun Rights, it is important to be kept informed about how the State of Maine manages its gun safety training, even if it is initially related to the issue of hunting.

While this is an ongoing issue that will certainly need updating, our members need to know that we are disappointed in the cancellation of this class and look forward to learning more about why they chose to act in this manner.

AR style firearms are no more than Modern Sporting Rifles that have been deemed legal to own in the US over and over and over again. They are used by many Maine residents to hunt, and it would seem to us that encouraging people who choose to use a legal firearm to hunt, provide for their families, and carry on a longstanding Maine tradition safely would be something the IF&W should be interested in encouraging, not canceling.

Our interest lies in whether or not the cancellation of this class has anything to do with calls to ban these types of legal firearms, why a handful of complaints dictates their policy and offerings, and if the department is taking any kind of stand on their legal use for hunting - and for our purposes- legal ownership of said firearms.

We will provide updates with more information as it comes in. Please see the below linked articles for more information.

Maine cancels AR gun class after complaints

Cancellation of Maine ‘AR’ Safety Class Opens Questions as to Motives and Legality

Gun Owners of Maine's Response to Governor Mills' State of the State Address on Tuesday, Jan 30th.

These are Governor Mills’ proposals as written before her address. These are how she believes we should address criminals perpetrating violence with the use of firearms in Maine:

1)Establish an Injury and Violence Prevention Program – establish an Injury and Violence Prevention Program at the Maine Centers for Disease Control as a central hub for violence and injury data that can bring together the information being collected by diverse sectors of our state, including health care, education, social services, and criminal justice agencies;

2)Establish a Statewide Network of Crisis Receiving Centers – Crisis receiving centers provide prompt and appropriate care to people who are suffering a mental health crisis, instead of leaving that person to languish in an emergency department or a jail, as is too often the case;

3)Keep Firearms Out of the Hands of Dangerous People-- Close Gaps in the Extreme Risk Protection Order Law, address that gap by allowing law enforcement to seek the approval of a judge, in unusual circumstances, to take a person into protective custody. If then deemed dangerous by a medical practitioner and judge, law enforcement could remove their weapons, pending a full hearing before a court. This change will provide law enforcement with another tool to ensure that someone is taken into protective custody and their weapons are removed;

4)Address Private Sales – address this issue by requiring any sale of a firearm that is advertised – through Facebook, Craigslist, Uncle Henry’s, a gun show, and other means – to be checked against the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the same system used by licensed firearm dealers. If enacted, it would ensure that when a gun is sold through an advertised, private sale, it cannot be sold to someone who is prohibited from having a firearm;

5)Incentivize Private Sellers to Verify a Buyer is Legally Allowed to Own a Gun -- Safe gun transfers from one family member to another, from one neighbor to another, or from one trusted friend to another are common among law-abiding gun owners in Maine. This would not change anything for people who are transferring a firearm to a relative or a friend who they know is allowed to own one. That longstanding tradition in Maine would remain the same. But it would mean that, if you are selling to a stranger, you should visit a licensed firearm dealer to check the NICS system, and make sure they are not a prohibited person, to avoid a felony charge and the possible prison time that comes along with it. 

During her address, she also added that she would like to change the wording of the current law from willfully or knowingly to adding the word “recklessly” when transferring a firearm to a prohibited person. We would object to the addition of that language as the term “recklessly” is a broad, subjective term that leaves too much up to interpretation.

Gun Owners of Maine has no issue with items one and two on the Governor's list. People in crisis and/or those seeking treatment need and deserve to be cared for in an appropriate manner, so long as the information gathered isn’t used to centralize gun ownership information in an effort to form any type of registry.

We feel that Maine's "Extreme Risk Protection Order", known to some as Maine’s “Yellow Flag Law” has no gaps. It needs to be enforced in order to work, when it is utilized it is effective. Anything more stringent is an abuse of power and devoid of due process. 

Yet again, what amounts to Universal Background Checks is being sought. As presented, the suggestions are unenforceable, do nothing to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, and infringe on the rights of the law-abiding. Criminals do not submit to background checks if they know they aren’t going to pass them. Firearms are often purchased months to years before being used in criminal activity.

Some would say that "Universal" background checks aren't being sought, but when the proposal is worded to "encourage" people to get background checks for private sales by increasing the crime from a misdemeanor to a felony, and changing the wording to subjective nonsense, that is indeed what it amounts to.

This is a list of individuals who passed a background check and then went on to commit a crime:

Virginia Tech (2007):

Seung-Hui Cho passed a background check

Fort Hood, TX (2009):

Nidal Malik Hasan passed a background check

Binghamton, NY (2009):

Jiverly Wong passed a background check

Tucson, AZ (2011):

Jared L. Loughner passed a background check

Aurora, CO (2012):

James Holmes passed a background check

Newtown, CT [Sandy Hook] (2012):

Adam Lanza’s mother passed a background check

Washington, DC (2013):

Aaron Alexis passed a background check

Charleston, SC (2015):

Dylann Roof passed a background check

Roseberg, OR (2015):

Christopher Harper-Mercer passed a background check

San Bernardino, CA (2015):

Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik’s neighbor passed a background check (straw purchase)

Orlando, FL (2015):

Omar Mateen passed a background check

Las Vegas, NV (2017):

Stephen Paddock passed a background check

Sutherland Springs, TX (2017):

Devin Patrick Kelley passed a background check

Parkland, FL (2018):

Nikolas Cruz passed a background check

Santa Fe, TX (2018):

Dimitrios Pagourtzis’ father passed a background check

Pittsburgh, PA (2018):

Robert Gregory Bowers passed a background check

Thousand Oaks, CA (2018):

Ian David Long passed a background check

Virginia Beach, VA (2019):

DeWayne Craddock passed a background check

El Paso, TX (2019):

Patrick Crusius passed a background check

Dayton, OH (2019):

Connor Betts passed a background check

Atlanta, GA (2021):

Robert Aaron Long passed a background check

LEWISTON, ME (2023):

Robert Card passed a background check

If a person has not been flagged as prohibited, a background check will do nothing to prevent them from committing a crime. It is this fundamental difference in approaching the criminal use of firearms that separates us from those who would seek to take away our inalienable rights. The anti-rights crowd would seek to remove all firearms from public use (this is their inevitable goal), leaving criminals armed and the law-abiding defenseless. Please tell us again how background checks curb violence.

The truth is,Universal Background Checks are a stepping stone to a national gun registry, and we will oppose it vehemently. It was defeated at the ballot box, it was defeated last year in the legislature, and we will continue to work to defeat any such proposal in the future. 

The Gun Owners of Maine Board of Directors

If you have any questions email info@gunownersofmaine.org 

Last week on Wednesday, January 17^th the work session was held with regard to LD 1696, a bill sponsored by Representative Millett of Cape Elizabeth designed to make it illegal to sell illegal firearms and provide a path for the Attorney General or other interested parties to sue in certain cases.

It originally started as “"An Act to Create a Civil Cause of Action for Persons Suffering Damages Arising from the Sale of Abnormally Dangerous Firearms" but was amended to read "An Act to Establish Civil Liability for the Illegal Sale or Marketing of Firearm-Related Products".

During the course of the day, the sponsor was nowhere to be found and never did show up to answer questions or provide answers to the Judiciary Committee about the contents of her proposal.

This bill came out of committee with a divided report (meaning it was not unanimous), with the majority recommending this proposed legislation ought NOT to pass. HOWEVER, when two more legislators who were absent submitted their votes, the majority report is now ought to pass.

We anticipate a full House and Senate vote when more gun-related bills have been voted out of committee.

After spending time with anti-gun rights activists in the Maine State House on January 3rd, it is evident that we will have our work cut out for us as we endeavor to educate the people of Maine on the importance of Gun Rights.

Our strength lies in the grassroots. The everyday gun owners in Maine who are willing to take time out of their day to talk to their family, friends, and neighbors about what it means to live in a free society. About what it means to have the right to defend person and property. About how we achieve that.

As we enter into the next legislative session the opponents of liberty have outlined their priorities:

Red Flag Laws that are devoid of due process

72-Hour waiting periods, after being declared legal to own a firearm, that would leave people defenseless and essentially decimate gun shows in our state

Universal Background Checks that will require the law-abiding to pay fees to privately sell their firearms while criminals and those with ill-intent continue to skirt the law, and

“Assault weapons” bans, that at their heart seek to erode the right to bear arms little by little until the law abiding populace is disarmed.

Please join us in the Fight for Freedom by adding yourself to our mailing list so that you can be kept aware of legislation and hearings, becoming a dues paying member to help us educate our State, and keeping advocating for our Second Amendment rights in our daily interactions with family and friends.

Just one day prior to the scheduled work session, the sponsor of LD 1696 submitted an amendment to change not only the title, but the content of her bill. It was changed from:

"An Act to Create a Civil Cause of Action for Persons Suffering Damages Arising from the Sale of Abnormally Dangerous Firearms"

to

"An Act to Establish Civil Liability for the Illegal Sale or Marketing of Firearm-Related Products"

This would allow the Maine Attorney General to subjectively fine people anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 for any person who sells, or offers, or markets a gun, ammo or accessories “in any manner that is unconscionable, unscrupulous, oppressive, or deceptive”, promotes modifications of illegal modifications."

It would also seek to make Maine a less desirable state for Firearms Manufacturers to sell their legal products.

This bill's work session has been moved to Wednesday, January 17th at 10:00am. There is still time to submit testimony online.

If you need assistance submitting testimony, please ask at info@gunownersofmaine.org

Gun Owners of Maine responds to Senator Angus King's GOSAFE Act proposal:

Senator Angus King’s GOSAFE Act proposal is not only misguided but dangerous.

Instead of focusing on curbing violence perpetrated by individuals with mental health problems, he is seeking to infringe not only on law-abiding citizens but on the future manufacture of firearms by “mandating that future gas-operated designs are approved before manufacture”. This would set a dangerous precedent for the government to further dictate how United States citizens defend themselves and the Orwellian undertones are unsettling.

Senator King’s proposal would make tens of millions of firearms that have already been deemed legal to own by the Supreme Court, illegal. By putting forth “feel good” legislation that on the surface might sound like a solution to violence, when in reality the proposal: further limits what kind of firearms are legal; makes arbitrary magazine capacity limits; requires legal gun owners to return their legally purchased firearms to the government knowing full well any criminals will not do so, leaving the law-abiding defenseless; Senator King is complicit in treading all over the United States Constitution.

Gun Owners of Maine opposes all legislation that removes the right to bear arms from law-abiding citizens. We maintain that evil lies in the hearts of men, not in inanimate objects, regardless of their capacity or firing mechanism. We look forward to the day when our Representatives in Congress are willing to sit down and have a serious discussion about how to address the mental health crisis that is taking place in our state and country instead of putting forth legislation that only harms the law-abiding.

Please visit our Legislative tracking page for the 131st session summary: https://gunownersofmaine.org/131Tracking

LD 168 - "An Act Regarding Criminal Background Checks for the Sale, Transfer or Exchange of Firearms" has not passed the senate.

It was voted on last minute in the House and passed by 1 vote with 14 absent. After moving to the Senate it was voted down.

https://legislature.maine.gov/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?paper=HP0109&SessionID=15

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/06/16/maine-senate-rejects-house-backed-bill-to-ban-bump-stocks-other-gun-modifications/

https://www.pressherald.com/2023/06/15/maine-senate-kills-72-hour-waiting-period-for-gun-purchases/

Yesterday the House voted AGAINST a 72 Hour Waiting period for gun owners who have already passed a background check to be able to take their firearms home.

This is a huge victory given the current make-up of the legislature when it comes to gun rights, outlined in the article below.

Legislature fails in initial try to push gun control through House