Gov. Janet Mills has proposed expanding Maine’s background check requirements to private gun sales and giving police an additional tool to take someone into “protective custody” under the state’s “yellow flag” law.
Mills outlined the gun safety proposals as well as other initiatives dealing with mental health services and the state’s response to recent storms during a speech Tuesday night to a joint session of Maine’s Legislature.
The Democratic governor said her gun safety proposals were shaped by the events of Oct. 25 — when a gunman killed 18 people in Lewiston in the worst mass shooting in state history — and by the conversations she has had with Maine residents since then.
“Each person had ideas about what we could do to address the problem, and each of those ideas was different,” Mills told the roughly 180 members of the Legislature gathered in the House chamber. “But what was not different — what was largely agreed upon — was an overarching belief that violence prevention is important; that we have to strengthen our mental health system and that dangerous people should not have access to firearms.”
Expanded background checks
In what is likely to be the most controversial of her proposals, Mills wants to require criminal background checks prior to any advertised private gun sale. The proposal aims to close a loophole that allows firearms to be sold with little or no scrutiny on the private market because background checks are only required under state or federal law prior to a sale by a federally licensed firearm dealer.
Under Mills’ proposal, anyone trying to sell a firearm at a gun show, through online marketplaces or classified listings in publications like Uncle Henry’s would have to have the prospective buyer’s name run through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. That check could be performed by any federally licensed firearms dealer.
Mills has previously opposed expanding Maine’s background check requirement because Maine voters rejected a similar proposal in a 2016 referendum.
“But now, in the aftermath of the violence we have seen across Maine, I have asked myself whether this approach is still the correct one,” Mills said. “And I have arrived at the conclusion: I don’t know how we can allow people who legally cannot have guns to buy them through a private sale and pose a risk to themselves or the public.”
Voters rejected that 2016 referendum, in part, because it would have required background checks on gun “transfers” among friends and some relatives. Mills said her proposal would not apply to such unadvertised transfers. But she also wants to make it a felony offense to “recklessly” sell a gun to a prohibited person as a way to encourage people to run background checks on someone they don’t know.
That proposal drew mixed reactions from lawmakers on Tuesday.
“It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to restrict the right of law-abiding gun owners by preventing private sales,” said House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor. “The Maine people rejected that by a statewide vote (in 2016) so I don't think the Maine people have moved off that position."
But Assistant Democratic Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier of Lewiston said she was excited to hear the proposal, adding that “there are other things that our caucus might want to do and I am excited to explore those opportunities with her.”
Senate President Troy Jackson, an Allagash Democrat, has also opposed expansion in the past. But on Tuesday night, Jackson told reporters that he looks forward to seeing the details of Mills’ proposal and he is hopeful that members of both parties can "come up with something that works."
“There has to be a way to keep our communities safer while also respecting the rights of responsible gun owners,” Jackson later said in a written statement. “It’s time for the Legislature to meet this moment in our state’s history. The policies outlined by the Governor seem like a good place for this conversation to start.”
Yellow flag changes
The governor is also proposing tweaking Maine’s so-called “yellow flag” law to allow police to seek a judge’s approval to take someone into “protective custody” if officers believe they pose a danger to themselves or others, even if they have not yet committed a crime.
Since Oct. 25, questions have swirled about why police in Maine did not employ Maine’s yellow flag law on the gunman, Robert R. Card II. That law allows police to temporarily confiscate a person’s firearms if a medical practitioner and then a judge determine that they pose a threat to themselves or others.
Family and fellow members of Card’s U.S. Army Reserve unit had raised concerns about Card’s increasing paranoia, his aggressive behavior and his access to guns. Deputies with the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office attempted to contact Card at his Bowdoinham home in mid-September. Although they suspected that Card was not home, deputies did not seek to force him out because they said he had not committed any crimes. As a result, deputies said they could not use Maine’s yellow flag law because it requires them to have a person in custody.
Mills’ proposal would allow police to ask a judge to take someone into custody to potentially begin the yellow flag process.
“This will remove a barrier by providing law enforcement with another tool to find the person, with a court order, to ensure that someone is taken into protective custody and that their weapons are removed,” Mills said.
Mills also proposed the creation of the state’s second mental health crisis receiving center — this time in Lewiston — where people can receive services and recovery support. She is also directing the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to create additional centers around the state over time.
Such centers are touted as a safer, more effective alternative to taking people enduring a mental health crisis to hospital emergency departments or jails. Maine’s first crisis receiving center, located in Portland, has served 3,000 people in less than two years.
Storm response
The third major focus of Mills’ speech on Tuesday evening was how the state should respond to the recent severe rain and windstorms that caused extensive flooding and other damage in coastal and riverfront communities.
Mills proposed earmarking $5 million to a Community Resilience Partnership fund that helps communities identify vulnerabilities from severe storms and a changing climate. Communities can then use those funds to develop mitigation or adaptation strategies to infrastructure, such as roads, sea walls and commercial fishing piers.
Additionally, Mills proposed taking out $50 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to deposit in an infrastructure fund to help communities complete such projects.
“Essentially, I am talking about taking from the Rainy Day Fund to respond to some pretty rainy days we’ve had and some pretty rainy days ahead,” Mills said.
Broader budget priorities
Breaking with tradition, Mills outlined the rest of her top budget and policy priorities in a written State of the State letter sent to lawmakers on Tuesday morning.
In that letter, Mills called for:
- Setting aside $100 million of a projected budget surplus exceeding $250 million for the next biennial budget, which the Legislature and governor will craft next year.
- Providing $16 million for temporary, transition and emergency housing programs.
- Earmarking $10 million for the Affordable Homeownership Program, a financing program administered by MaineHousing to subsidize construction of affordable housing.
- Expanding medication-assisted treatment programs to county jails to help incarcerated individuals grappling with substance use disorder while providing $2 million to purchase additional overdose-reversal drugs and hire additional recovery coaches.
- Hiring additional legal aides and trainers for Maine’s child welfare programs.
Mills’ proposal to hold off committing all of the projected surplus will likely face skeptics from her own caucus and from progressive groups.
House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, said the Legislature “will do our level best to ensure we are meeting the needs of all Maine families.”
“I commend Governor Mills for her ongoing commitment to vital investments in education and child welfare, but as we negotiate our final spending proposal we must recognize that we still have so many urgent needs to be met,” Talbot Ross said in a statement. “We have significant opportunities ahead of us and will honor our commitment to improve the lives of all Mainers.”
Wrapping up her speech, Mills sought to tie together the idea of rebuilding and moving on after the recent tragedies and challenges.
“As we fortify our state against the ravages of unpredictable storms and the predictability of climate change, so will we restore and strengthen our sense of personal security and collective safety, based on the principles of the Golden Rule, protecting others as we would protect ourselves, in our state and in our nation,” Mills said.
