Maine gun safety advocates launch citizen initiative to pass ‘red flag’ law

The Maine Gun Safety Coalition and allies launched a citizen initiative on Thursday to pass a “red flag” law after the state commission tasked with investigating the Lewiston mass shooting concluded that local law enforcement failed to enforce the state’s current “yellow flag” law. 

The main difference between the laws are that under a “red flag” law, officially called Extreme Risk Protection Order, family members can directly petition a judge to temporarily limit someone’s access to firearms when they are in crisis, whereas current Maine statute only permits law enforcement to do so and requires a mental health evaluation before a judge can confiscate someone’s firearms. 

Washington D.C. and 21 states have “red flag” laws, but Maine is the only state with a “yellow flag” version of this type of proactive violence prevention order. 

The group said they are currently signing up volunteers to begin collecting petition signatures at the polls on Election Day, Nov. 5.

“In the aftermath of last year’s tragedy in Lewiston, people in communities across Maine have asked what could have been done differently,” said Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition and one of the citizen petitioners. “The Lewiston report laid bare the inadequacies of the half-measure lawmakers passed in 2019. The commission did its part, and now the rest is up to us.”

Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey established the Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston with a fact-finding mission, and it was not tasked to make policy recommendations, commission chair Daniel Wathen said during the press conference in which the report was released last month.

The commission concluded that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had sufficient probable cause to both take Card into protective custody and start a petition to confiscate his firearms under Maine’s yellow flag law, yet failed to do so. Further, the report noted that during public hearings held by the commission, “several law enforcement officials testified that the yellow flag law is cumbersome, inefficient, and unduly restrictive regarding who can initiate a proceeding to limit a person’s access to firearms.”

The initiative to push for a “red flag” law is a coalition effort, called the Safe Schools, Safe Communities citizen initiative. It includes gun safety advocates, health care and mental health professionals, faith leaders, teachers, gun owners and veterans groups, among others. 

One of the initiative’s sponsors is Arthur Barnard, father of Lewiston shooting victim Arthur Strout, who wrote in a statement that the state Legislature has not done enough to prevent another mass shooting. 

“In the year since I lost my son, we went to Augusta and tried to get lawmakers to do the right thing and tighten this law up, and they fell short,” Barnard wrote. “Now we’re taking this common sense proposal directly to the people of Maine. If Extreme Risk Protection Orders could prevent just one more family from ever having to experience what I’ve gone through – what my grandchildren are going through every day – it’s worth it.”

Following the mass shooting in Lewiston on Oct. 25, 2023, that left 18 people dead and 13 injured, legislators considered a number of gun reform proposals. 

Those that became law included a modification of the state’s existing “yellow flag” law that allows police to get protective custody warrants to use at their discretion to take dangerous people into custody and remove their weapons. The law also expands background checks for advertised sales and incentivizes checks for unadvertised sales. 

The supplemental state budget provided more funding for the “yellow flag” law, which has seen increased use since the Lewiston shooting. Mills said earlier this month the law has been used a total of 392 times, 311 of which since last October.

A law creating a 72-hour waiting period for certain firearm purchases also passed narrowly. 

However, the most ambitious gun reform last session, a proposed “red flag” law, never made it to a final vote. Mills also vetoed a proposal that would have changed the definition of machine guns to limit their use and required that firearms used in a crime be destroyed. 

Meanwhile at the federal level, Maine’s U.S. senators are pushing for legislation to ensure the military uses existing state crisis intervention laws when a service member poses a threat to themselves or others. 

Aside from Palmer and Barnard, the other citizen petitioners for Safe Schools, Safe Communities are Joe Anderson, a pediatric hospitalist in Lewiston, Cathy Harris, a retired teacher, Lisa Durkee, a minister, and Doug Rawlings, a veteran. 

The Maine Secretary of State’s Office confirmed on Thursday that the group filed for a citizen initiative. They will need to collect 67,682 valid signatures (or 10% of the total votes cast for governor at the Nov. 2022 election). The filing deadline for appearing on the November 2025 ballot is 5 p.m. on January 23, 2025 and February 2, 2026 for the November 2026 ballot.

The Safe Schools, Safe Communities campaign has been endorsed by a number of organizations across the state, such as the Maine Medical Association, Responsible Gun Owners of Maine and Maine Summer Camps, as well as religious groups, including the Congregation Bet Ha’am and Episcopal Diocese of Maine. 

This story was originally published by the Maine Morning Star