AUGUSTA, Maine — Two days after deadly mass shootings in Lewiston, Democrats in the Maine Legislature looked poised to open up a thorny debate over gun control measures that have been routinely thwarted by bipartisan opposition here.
The shootings that killed 18 people at a bowling alley and bar were Maine’s second mass shooting in six months, the deadliest such event in state history and the country’s deadliest shooting this year. It renewed familiar discussions over gun and mental health laws.
The suspect, Robert R. Card II, used an assault-style rifle with an extended magazine and had been committed to a mental health facility in New York for two weeks this summer.After a three-day manhunt, law enforcement found Card’s body Friday in Lisbon.
While several lawmakers said Friday they wanted to wait longer before discussing gun policies and instead focus on the victims, Rep. Michel Lajoie, a Lewiston Democrat and former fire chief who has leaned more conservative on issues including abortion, said he thinks banning assault-style weapons like AR-15-style rifles will be a priority for the Legislature.
“The only thing that weapon is used for is target practice, war and killing people,” Lajoie added.
Lajoie’s stance echoes what U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston resident, said Thursday in an abrupt turn by urging Congress to ban assault weapons. Golden, a centrist Democrat from the rural 2nd District that former President Donald Trump won twice, said he was wrong to oppose previous attempts to ban certain semi-automatic weapons and limit magazine sizes.
The congressman’s shift prompted a strong reaction from the three Republicans vying for the nomination to challenge him as well as members of the Maine Legislature who accused Golden, President Joe Biden and other Democrats who have invoked the shootings here to argue for gun control of wrongly advancing a political narrative.
“Now is the time to fix these systems and conduct an audit to find out how this happened,” Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, said in a Facebook post, arguing that other state laws failed in the run-up to the shooting. “Rushing to pass new legislation is not the answer.”
Democrats control the Maine Legislature and the governor’s office, yet Maine stands out as a state with relaxed gun laws, high levels of gun ownership and a strong hunting culture.
While Gov. Janet Mills supported gun control measures during her 2018 primary before winning the office, she has resisted them as governor by noting Maine voters opposed expanded background checks in a 2016 referendum.
Mills and the influential Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine have worked together on gun policies, including by watering down a so-called red flag law to instead reach a “yellow flag” compromise in 2019. It allows police and prosecutors to ask a court to restrict a person’s access to weapons if they are suspected to be mentally ill or a danger to themselves or others.
While Democratic attempts to create 72-hour waiting periods on gun purchases, ban bump stocks and expand background checks stalled earlier this year, Mills did sign in June a bill that echoes federal law in enacting a state-level ban on “straw purchases,” or providing firearms to people who cannot legally buy them.
Mills spokesperson Ben Goodman said Friday the governor’s focus is on helping police capture the suspect, understanding the facts in the case and offering “love and support to those injured and the family and friends of those lost.”
“With those facts in hand, she believes the people of Maine deserve a robust discussion about public safety at the state and federal levels in the coming weeks,” Goodman said.
Nine states and Washington, D.C., have banned assault-style weapons, with Connecticut and Massachusetts among the New England states with such prohibitions generally covering the same type of firearms, such as AR-15-style rifles used in numerous mass shootings. Some states have faced lawsuits over the bans.
Several state lawmakers said Friday they are not sure which policies are best to pursue at this point, but Rep. Vicki Doudera, D-Camden, said she looks to Vermont as a “role model.” It has a similar gun culture but more progressive politics.
In 2018, it enacted universal background checks, raised the minimum age to purchase firearms and limited access to large-capacity magazines. Gov. Phil Scott, a liberal Republican, allowed further restrictions to go into law without his signature earlier this year.
Gun-rights backers in Maine are signaling caution, saying more details of the shooting need to emerge to craft the proper response.
“They can do their thing,” David Trahan, the executive director of Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, said, “but our organization is going to wait for all the facts to come out.”
But Rep. Sally Cluchey, D-Bowdoinham, whose district has been tied to both mass shootings in Maine this year, said a true red-flag law is needed. Lawmakers “can’t be afraid of the politics of this anymore,” Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, said.
“I would feel really disappointed in us as a Legislature if our policy response was nothing,” he added.
One source of unity among lawmakers from both major parties is the sense of grief they felt for Lewiston and for Maine after Wednesday’s massacre and April’s shooting spree in which a Bowdoin man killed his parents and their two friends before wounding three on Interstate 295.
“It was just a matter of time before this happened,” Lajoie said. “Now, we have to react.”
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.