A portrait of Margaret Chase Smith in the background as proponents of gun safety rally in the halls of the State House on Jan. 3, 2024. (Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star)
Gov. Janet Mills on Friday announced her official opposition to a statewide referendum that will ask voters if they want to institute tougher gun safety regulations, arguing the proposed red flag law will ultimately undermine public safety.
Question 2 on the November ballot will read: “Do you want to allow courts to temporarily prohibit a person from having dangerous weapons if law enforcement, family, or household members show that the person poses a significant danger of causing physical injury to themselves or others?”
Maine is the only state that has what’s known as a yellow flag law, which allows law enforcement to take guns away from people after a mental health evaluation. Red flag laws, known as extreme risk protection orders, are active in twenty-one states, including four in New England.
Before the Oct. 25, 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, the yellow flag law had been used sparingly as law enforcement had reported it was cumbersome.
An independent commission investigating the Lewiston tragedy determined that under the current law, local law enforcement had sufficient probable cause to take the perpetrator, Robert Card II, into protective custody and start a petition to confiscate his firearms. That has both fueled calls for stronger protections as well as prompted more frequent use of the yellow flag law.
In an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald, Mills cites the 1,100 times that the yellow flag law has been used to remove weapons and protect individuals and the public. “Our law has been preventing suicide, getting people help and saving lives every day,” she wrote.
“Question 2 would create a new, separate and confusing process that will undermine the effectiveness of the law and endanger public safety along with it,” she added.
After the Maine Legislature failed to pass several more restrictive gun safety measures in the wake of the shooting, the Maine Gun Safety Coalition launched the referendum effort and in January delivered more than 80,000 petition signatures in support of the red flag proposal.
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The referendum proposes allowing a family member, household member or law enforcement officer to file a petition, along with an affidavit of facts, for an extreme risk protection order if someone is suspected of posing a significant danger of causing physical injury to themself or another person. That protection order would prohibit the person from purchasing, possessing or controlling a “dangerous weapon.”
Advocating in favor of the current model, Mills argues that involving law enforcement early “takes the burden off you as a family member for ‘turning in’ someone who’s close to you” and points out that “law enforcement can access more information” and navigate the court system more easily than members of the public.
The governor also said that “involving law enforcement provides another important level of due process that strengthens the law’s constitutionality.”
In the commentary, Mills explained how Maine’s unique law came together through a consensus process, which she helped lead.
“Our law is not some cookie cutter measure copied and pasted from another state. It was written by and for Maine people, carefully crafted to include important due process safeguards that protect both public safety and the rights of the individual,” she wrote. “We found common ground on one of the most controversial issues of our time.”
The governor had teased her opposition to a red flag law in her State of the Budget address in January, during which she said, “It is the government’s responsibility, not that of a private citizen, to protect the public from gun violence.”
Earlier this week, advocates and opponents of the referendum effort held a debate on the proposal.
During the televised town hall, former Public Safety Commissioner Anne Jordan, who also served as executive director of the independent commission on the Lewiston shooting, described the yellow flag law as a “failed” experiment.