guns

Scores of new laws passed by the Legislature earlier this year took effect on Friday.

Gun control advocates in Maine and across the U.S. see the ruling as clarifying and restraining the dramatic expansion of gun rights in the court's controversial 2022 Bruen decision.

The proposal was designed to match a federal rule banning devices that can allow semi-automatic firearms to fire almost as quickly as machine guns, but the governor argued that the definition in the bill were overly broad and could include devices used by hunters and in target shooting.

The governor says she was deeply conflicted about the three-day waiting period proposal and that the ban on so-called bump stocks was too broad.

The governor's bill was a response to the Lewiston mass shootings and one that straddles the competing interests in Maine gun politics.

Six months after the mass shootings, gun control advocates won approval for several initiatives that have evaded them in Maine's traditionally gun-friendly Legislature. But Gov. Janet Mills has yet to signal where she stands on at least two of the bills.

A bill banning "bump stocks" and a bill requiring gun buyers to wait 72 hours before picking up a firearm from a licensed dealer, passed in the House on Tuesday.

Debate over a half-dozen gun bills still pending in the Legislature has been influenced by the mass shooting in Lewiston last October that left 18 dead.

The measure is response to the Lewiston shootings and would allow family members to petition courts to seize a dangerous person's guns without involvement of police or a mental health evaluation.

Mental health advocates say Maine's current 'yellow flag' law doesn't cover everyone who might be dangerous, while gun rights advocates say it affords due process and should have been used to prevent the Lewiston shootings.