Maine adopted a new law requiring gun retailers to institute a 72-hour waiting period before customers can bring their purchased guns back home, one of many gun-related bills enacted following the state’s deadliest mass shooting last October.
The legislation went into effect on Friday, nearly ten months after U.S. Army reservist Robert Card, 40, killed 18 people and wounded 13 others at a bowling alley and a bar-and-grill restaurant in Lewiston. The stated intention of the bill is to reduce suicides and violent crimes in the state, referring to Card’s murder spree and eventual suicide. The attack occurred on October 25, 2023. The gunman’s body was found dead two days later.
Governor Janet Mills (D.) allowed the bill to become law without signing it. In April, Mills said she felt “deeply conflicted” after thinking “long and hard about the potential impacts of this bill.”
On the one hand, she understands opponents’ arguments that the bill would restrict Second Amendment rights and would not have prevented the Lewiston tragedy from occurring anyway. On the other, the governor sees how the bill could prevent suicides in a state that sees more than half of suicides being caused by firearms. Taking both positions into account, Mills did not sign the legislation.
Maine Republicans accused their Democratic counterparts, which control both chambers of the state legislature, of using the Lewiston tragedy to advance several gun-control policies.
The bills strengthened the state’s “yellow flag” law allowing weapons to be confiscated from gun owners suffering from mental illness, criminalized the transfer of guns to prohibited buyers, expanded mental-health crisis care, and required background checks for people who advertise a gun for sale on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or elsewhere.
Mills signed these measures into law after telling lawmakers during her State of the State address in January that doing nothing about gun violence and mental health was not an option.
Meanwhile, the bill that now requires a three-day waiting period for gun purchases has received praise and pushback.
The Maine Gun Safety Coalition believes it “will certainly save lives, both here in Maine and throughout the nation,” executive director Nacole Palmer said, according to the Associated Press. Gun-rights activists argue just the opposite, with one saying it’s “just speculation” that the law would save lives.
“This really is just an arbitrary waiting period because some people think it could stop someone from committing suicide. Well, half the suicides are committed in other ways,” said David Trahan, executive director of the Maine Sportsmen’s Alliance. The member noted his group supports Maine’s yellow flag law, which he says does more to save lives than the 72-hour waiting period.
Gun retailers also opposed the law, saying their sales would go down as a result and arguing the measure is too vague. “It’s as clear as mud,” Laura Whitcomb from Gun Owners of Maine said of the guidance’s gray areas.
The new law’s detractors have vowed to sue, contending it only harms law-abiding citizens while doing nothing to stop criminals from illegally obtaining firearms. Like Trahan, they also argue that the law won’t prevent people from committing suicide by any means other than using a gun.
Violations of the law will be treated as civil infractions and are punishable by a fine of $200 to $500 for the first offense and $500 to $1,000 for future violations.