The push for a slate of gun safety proposals continued in the Maine Legislature on Tuesday as lawmakers held a public hearing on one proposal that would ban so-called bump stocks and another that would allow people in crisis to temporarily surrender their firearms.
But some gun safety activists used the hearing to push for more aggressive measures.
The two bills are among several proposals sponsored by Democrats in response to the mass shootings in Lewiston last fall.
Democrats have controlled the Legislature since 2019, but they've been mostly reluctant to pass measures touted by gun safety activists such as limiting magazine capacity or banning assault-style weapons.
Neither of those proposals are up for consideration this session, but Arthur Barnard, whose son was killed during the Lewiston shootings, believes lawmakers should consider both.
"I don't think anybody should have a clip that holds more than what we're allowed to for hunting," he said. "They're just weapons of destruction."
Barnard was referring to a law that limits magazines to five rounds for hunters using semi-automatic rifles. He said that under existing law human beings have less of a chance than game animals because semi-automatic guns can be outfitted with large-capacity magazines.
He was testifying on a bill sponsored by Sen. Anne Carney, a Democrat from Cape Elizabeth, that would ban bump stocks, which are used to turn a semi-automatic rifle into a weapon that can fire almost rapidly as a machine gun.
Fifteen states have banned such modifications and former President Donald Trump instituted a federal ban, although gun rights activists are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn it.
Carney's bill would add such mechanisms to an existing law banning machine guns.
However, as other gun safety activists continued to call on lawmakers to add an assault weapons ban, they were confronted by some Republicans to define them — a tactic sometimes used to expose confusion or misunderstanding about the differences between types of firearms.
At one point Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, posed such a question to Todd Remage-Healey, Portland resident and member of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition.
"I want to ask you, what is an assault weapon?" Brakey asked.
"The weapon that was used in Lewiston is an assault weapon. You know very well what an assault weapon is, you don't have to ask me," Remage-Healey responded.
"What makes it an assault weapon? What distinguishes it from a hunting rifle?" Brakey asked.
"It's because of its velocity and its full ammunition, that's what an assault weapon is," Remage-Healey said. "It's a (expletive) machine gun, is what it is. That's what people are carrying around, machine guns."
Gun rights groups oppose some of the Maine measures heard Tuesday, but they're expected to be more vocal about a proposal that would create a three-day waiting period for firearm sales.
A public hearing on that bill will take place Thursday.
