\n<\/p>\n
Last year, Maine lawmakers passed a sweeping anti-gun measure, which included a three-day waiting period that became law because Gov. Janet Mills neither signed nor vetoed it. Mills\u2019 support for various gun control laws raised concern among gun owners and sportsmen across the state, but her veto of a so-called \u201cassault weapons\u201d ban last May offered gun owners some optimism.<\/p>\n
Now, it appears that Gov. Mills might be siding with gun rights groups against a growing effort by state Democrats to get a red-flag law referendum put on the statewide ballot, according to a report at mainepublic.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n During her speech on the state budget on January 30, Mills criticized an effort to push a so-called \u201cred-flag\u201d law through a ballot initiative, saying it would undermine the state\u2019s current \u201cyellow-flag\u201d law, which she sees as sufficient. In fact, Mills vetoed a \u201cred-flag\u201d proposal during the last legislative session.<\/p>\n On January 23, gun control activists in the Pine Tree State submitted more than 80,000 signatures in an effort to get the arguably unconstitutional proposal on the state ballot. The Secretary of State has 30 days from that date to certify the referendum signatures.<\/p>\n In her speech, Mills discussed state actions after a horrible mass murder in Lewiston, Maine, in October 2023 killed 18 people and wounded 13 others. That shooting was the impetus for the newly proposed \u201cred-flag\u201d referendum.<\/p>\n
![<\/a>Maine Gov. Janet Mills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nLast year, Maine lawmakers passed a sweeping anti-gun measure, which included a three-day waiting period that became law because Gov. Janet Mills neither signed nor vetoed it. Mills\u2019 support for various gun control laws raised concern among gun owners and sportsmen across the state, but her veto of a so-called \u201cassault weapons\u201d ban last May offered gun owners some optimism.<\/p>\nNow, it appears that Gov. Mills might be siding with gun rights groups against a growing effort by state Democrats to get a red-flag law referendum put on the statewide ballot, according to a report at mainepublic.org<\/a>.<\/p>\nDuring her speech on the state budget on January 30, Mills criticized an effort to push a so-called \u201cred-flag\u201d law through a ballot initiative, saying it would undermine the state\u2019s current \u201cyellow-flag\u201d law, which she sees as sufficient. In fact, Mills vetoed a \u201cred-flag\u201d proposal during the last legislative session.<\/p>\nOn January 23, gun control activists in the Pine Tree State submitted more than 80,000 signatures in an effort to get the arguably unconstitutional proposal on the state ballot. The Secretary of State has 30 days from that date to certify the referendum signatures.<\/p>\nIn her speech, Mills discussed state actions after a horrible mass murder in Lewiston, Maine, in October 2023 killed 18 people and wounded 13 others. That shooting was the impetus for the newly proposed \u201cred-flag\u201d referendum.<\/p>\n\u201cAfter the tragedy of October 25 in Lewiston, we established a commission of distinguished experts, as you know, to determine the facts surrounding the horrific event,\u201d Mills said during the budget speech<\/a>. \u201cFollowing their report, we authorized an independent after-action review of the law enforcement response as well. That review recommended measures to improve communication and coordination in the event of another such tragedy. We are requesting in the budget some additional positions to meet those recommendations and strengthen our response to future emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\nHowever, as Mills pointed out, the fault of the shooting didn\u2019t rest on the state\u2019s current law, which is referred to as a \u201cyellow-flag\u201d law, because it is not quite as punitive to innocent gun owners and was updated just last year.<\/p>\n\u201cAs an aside, the Lewiston Commission also noted that Maine\u2019s extreme risk protection law, the so-called \u2018yellow-flag\u2019 law, could have been used to remove the predator\u2019s gun before that tragedy occurred. And last year, we strengthened that law to clarify and streamline the process further.\u201d<\/p>\nShe then directly addressed the gun-ban advocates who had organized the signature drive to get a \u201cred-flag\u201d referendum on the ballot.<\/p>\n\u201cLast week, advocates submitted signatures to force a referendum that would directly undermine our current law,\u201d she said. \u201cThis law is not a burden\u2026 This law provides due process, and it will survive legal scrutiny. Right now, law enforcement in Maine are taking this law seriously.<\/p>\n\u201cI stand by our current law, which was passed with a near-unanimous support of the legislature. It\u2019s working. It\u2019s saving lives every day.\u201d<\/p>\nUltimately, it\u2019s unsure whether Gov. Mills\u2019 outspoken opposition to the \u201cred-flag\u201d referendum will be enough to stop the movement in its tracks. But one thing is certain: It sure can\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maine Gov. Janet Mills Last year, Maine lawmakers passed a sweeping anti-gun measure, which included a three-day waiting period that became law because Gov. Janet Mills neither signed nor vetoed it. Mills\u2019 support for various gun control laws raised concern among gun owners and sportsmen across the state, but her veto of a so-called \u201cassault […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunsandpride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screen-Shot-2025-02-03-at-5.00.43-PM.png\"){kind=link}