Maine lawmakers to consider late ‘red flag’ proposal after state’s deadliest shooting

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine lawmakers racing toward adjournment are going to consider a so-called “red flag” law allowing family members to petition a judge for temporary removal of guns, thanks to an eleventh-hour bill introduced by the house leader.

House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, a Democrat, said it’s important to reconsider the previously rejected proposal after a gunman killed 18 people last fall amid signs of deteriorating mental health. A competing bill by the Democratic governor would strengthen the state’s existing crisis intervention tool, a so-called “yellow flag” law.

The new proposal, introduced three weeks before lawmakers adjourn, would allow family members to go directly to a judge to request that someone’s guns be removed during a psychiatric crisis.

The state’s current law requires police to start the process by taking someone into protective custody, initiating a case that eventually ends up before a judge. It went into effect in 2020 in lieu of a red flag law, aimed at simplifying the process by letting police handle it, and an independent commission said it should’ve been used with the Lewiston gunman.

The speaker acknowledged the 11th-hour nature of her proposal but said her constituents have demanded it.

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“This bill will ensure that those people who are a risk to themselves and others can receive the help they need, while preventing senseless acts of violence,” Talbot Ross said in a statement.

But Republican Sen. Lisa Keim, who sponsored the yellow flag law, said the new proposal strips away protections built into the current statute, which capitalizes on people’s instinct to call police in an emergency instead of seeking out a judge at a courthouse. “Given what the commission said, it’s obvious that the yellow flag is sufficient,” she said.

The red flag bill is among a number of proposals introduced in response to the Oct. 25 shootings at a bowling alley and at a bar and grill in Lewiston. The 40-year-old gunman, an Army reservist, was becoming paranoid and delusional, and was hospitalized while his reserve unit was training in New York. A fellow reservist warned that he might commit a mass shooting.

Gun control advocacy groups rallied around the new proposal on Thursday. A group founded by former congresswoman and shooting survivor Gabby Giffords said the measure would help prevent more mass shootings. Lawmakers “must look at every opportunity to strengthen Maine’s gun safety laws and fulfill promises made to honor the lives lost in Lewiston with clear action,” said Joe Platte, the group’s state legislative manager.

It’s important for the state to have a “true red flag law,” said Lianna Holden, a volunteer leader with the Freeport High School Students Demand Action chapter.

“The single most important thing we can do to prevent gun violence is take action before tragedy strikes,” Holden said.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills has called for streamlining and strengthening the state’s existing yellow flag law by allowing police to directly petition a judge to remove someone’s guns, keeping police in the lead of the process. She’s also called for boosting background checks for private sales of weapons and bolstering mental crisis care. Other proposals by Democratic leaders include a 72-hour waiting period for most gun purchases and a ban on bump stocks or other modifications that can transform a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun.

The Maine Legislature already voted in favor of expanding mental health care in the aftermath of the shooting, but that bipartisan bill is on hold until funding questions are addressed.

The proposed red flag law would allow a member of a person’s family or household, as well as police, to petition for temporary confiscation of guns. A judge would be required to issue an extreme risk protection order on the same day of a determination that someone is “an immediate and present danger.” A hearing would be required to extend the temporary order beyond 14 days.

Republican lawmakers previously accused Democrats of trying to capitalize on the Lewiston tragedy to push proposals previously rejected by lawmakers in a state that has a strong hunting tradition. They’ve also said the proposals could be unconstitutional, and aren’t supported by the findings of a state panel that investigated the shootings.

That panel, which is still conducting its review, issued an interim report this month that said law enforcement had the ability to seize guns from shooter Robert Card under the state’s existing laws. Card was found dead by suicide after the state’s biggest manhunt.

Keim said both proposals — from the governor and the speaker — would eliminate due process rights for gun owners, making it too easy for someone to abuse the system and to take away guns. The current protections are needed, the senator said, because “it should be difficult to take away someone’s constitutional rights.”