Jun. 17—AUGUSTA — Maine Republicans and opponents of the initiative that will go to voters this fall to make it easier to confiscate weapons from a person in crisis want to put another option on the ballot that would include changes to existing law and funding for mental health services.
The proposal was unveiled Tuesday morning at a press conference hosted by Maine House Republicans. It would establish two new crisis receiving centers offering services to people undergoing mental health crisis and provide funding for five community behavioral health clinics.
The proposal also would require school resource officers to undergo training every two years on extreme risk protection orders, which can be used to temporarily remove a person’s firearms, and would prohibit a court from issuing an order denying a person the right to purchase or possess a dangerous weapon except in certain circumstances, including the issuance of an extreme risk protection order.
And it would create a grant fund to support the extreme risk protection order process and address the underlying mental health issues that prompt the orders to be issued.
“This competing measure strengthens our yellow flag law,” said Rep. Jennifer Poirier, R-Skowhegan, who is leading the effort to get the measure on the November ballot as an alternative to the red flag initiative that has already qualified.
The Maine Gun Safety Coalition gathered more than 70,000 signatures of Maine voters to qualify the red flag initiative for the ballot. The question would provide a pathway for family or household members, in addition to law enforcement, to petition a court to temporarily remove someone’s weapons.
Unlike Maine’s current yellow flag law, it would eliminate the need for a mental health evaluation before a judge can order the temporary confiscation of weapons through an extreme risk protection order.
Critics of the red flag effort say it infringes on 2nd Amendment Rights and have said Maine’s yellow flag law, which took effect in 2020, is working well. Usage of the law has spiked in the aftermath of the 2023 Lewiston mass shooting as law enforcement awareness of and training around the law has increased.
Lawmakers have three options when receiving a qualified citizens initiative: Enact it without changes, send it to voters, or send it to voters with a competing measure. It’s rare, however, for lawmakers to add competing measures — the last time that occurred was in 2003, according to legislative records.
Democrats, who control both chambers of the Legislature, have indicated they plan to send the red flag initiative to voters without an effort to pass it.
Poirier called on Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, to move forward with a work session on the competing measure, though it was unclear Tuesday afternoon if that would happen. Lawmakers are in the final days of the session and leaders have indicated they plan to conclude their work by Wednesday.
“We have options to either go into a straight work session in committee or take this up on the House floor, and we’re waiting for them to answer that call for action,” Poirier said.
Spokespeople for Daughtry and Fecteau did not immediately respond Tuesday to questions about whether a work session would be scheduled or if the proposal would be taken up on the House floor.
If the proposal is approved by lawmakers as a competing measure, it would appear as a third option on November’s ballot, which would ask voters if they want to approve the red flag proposal, the competing measure, or neither.
The proposal calls for $1 million in ongoing annual funding and a one-time allocation of $2 million to fund crisis receiving centers in Kennebec and Aroostook counties. Funding was previously allocated for those centers, but Gov. Janet Mills’ proposed budget removed that as part of a cost savings measure. A newly released budget proposal from legislative Democrats also eliminates funding that had been set aside previously.
The proposed ballot measure also includes $2 million in one-time state funding and supporters said the state could apply for an additional $7 million in federal funding for community behavioral health clinics.
David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, a group that advocates for gun owners and hunters, spoke at Tuesday’s press conference in support of the proposed competing measure.
“I think we all know mental health services are desperately needed in rural areas, and in order to do that, we need a commitment from the Legislature,” Trahan said.
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