Maine’s closely divided House and Senate, led by Democrats determined to drag the state toward California-style activism – hit a wall late session, as they tried to pass LD 2283, a bill that posed as a public safety initiative, a so-called “red flag” law, but which many lawyers and constitutional observers considered a “set up” for future gun confiscation. The bill arguably would have allowed law enforcement to seize firearms on the basis of someone feeling “threatened,’” an undefined term that could range from offense to a sense of mortal danger. The law would have added nothing to the “yellow flag” laws already in place, which would have made any difference in last year’s Lewiston shooting, where many knew that the shooter had mental health issues, but no one acted on “yellow flag” opportunities to remove his guns.
The outcry from Maine citizens appears to have been considerable, as the initially gung-ho state Democrats suddenly tabled the bill, and it died at the session’s end, replaced by small changes to “yellow flag” provisions. Lest there be any mystery in this outcome, many Mainers appear to have reached their limit when it comes to Democrat-led restrictions on their lives, and among those are AMAC members.
In a state with just under 10,000 AMAC members, a veritable political action army, nearly hundreds literally wrote personal notes to their legislators, arguing that this was a betrayal of their trust, and a violation of their constitutional rights. The outcome appears to have been a sudden rethinking by the Democrat leadership about whether sufficient votes existed to even bring the bill to the floor of either chamber.
Congratulations to AMAC members, in Maine and nationwide, who consistently stand up for the Bill of Rights, from speech and free exercise of religion to gun ownership and the wide range of individual liberties. Every ounce of effort matters, and it did in Maine!
