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Nacole Palmer is the executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition.
Gun violence is preventable. I know this to be true because I have seen the vast difference in the numbers of gun deaths in states with weaker versus stronger gun laws.
It’s easy to think otherwise, but we are not powerless to prevent mass shootings, reduce suicides, and better protect our communities. There are common-sense reforms that can be implemented that are effective without infringing upon the rights of lawful gun owners.
Background checks, waiting periods, bans on assault-style weapons, large capacity magazines and dangerous gun modifications, and extreme risk protection orders all reduce gun violence. The evidence is clear.
Background checks are fast, convenient, and efficient. In at least 90 percent of cases, background checks are processed through the National Instant Criminal Background Check system in less than two minutes.
Since 1998, background checks have kept more than 2.1 million guns out of the hands of prohibited persons.
And the checks can be completed at any one of the 583 federally licensed firearms dealers in Maine. In comparison, there are only 159 Dunkin Donuts and 62 McDonald’s restaurants in the state. Background checks are easier to access than a Big Mac.
Background checks keep guns away from people who are prohibited from having them without creating a gun registry or a gun database. Federal and Maine state law prohibit the creation of gun registries.
In fact, here’s what the NRA has to say about Maine: “State law prohibits a government agency of the state or a political subdivision from keeping or causing to be kept any registry of privately-owned firearms and the owners of those firearms.”
Waiting periods save lives, and they don’t threaten gun ownership or small businesses. Twelve states have waiting periods, and they still have gun shows and robust gun sales.
Waiting periods prevent suicides (and homicides, too). While 90 percent of suicide attempts with guns end in death, only 4 percent of attempts with other means have such tragic consequences. Time, space, and means matter. And in a state where nearly 90 percent of gun deaths are suicides, waiting periods are a vital piece of preventing suicides.
Waiting 72 hours doesn’t make people less safe. It’s just the opposite. And access to a gun makes it five times more likely that a victim of domestic abuse will be killed, which is why the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence testified in favor of a waiting period.
A true extreme risk protection order includes a pathway for families to intervene when they think someone they love is a danger to themselves or others, without taking someone into protective custody or requiring a mental health evaluation. Maine law lags behind the 21 states that have this option, and our state desperately needs it.
We can’t go back in time, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t undo the tragedy of the mass shootings in Lewiston on Oct. 25.
But here’s what we do know: A true extreme risk protection order, if initiated, would have meant that the killer’s weapons could have been confiscated without taking him into custody, creating the least amount of danger to law enforcement, the community and the killer himself.
A background check expansion would have made it so that if his weapons were taken away by an ERPO, he couldn’t have just gotten more weapons the same day in a sale with no background check.
And an assault weapons ban might have prevented him having the weapons of war he used to take lives in the first place.
We are not helpless, and we do not have to accept that gun violence is just part of life. Common-sense, meaningful gun safety reforms will save lives in Maine. And thanks to the efforts of thousands of Mainers, our state is now on the verge of doing exactly that.
