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Nacole Palmer is the executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition.
The 18 fatal shootings and 13 injuries in Lewiston this past October shed a harsh light on the urgent need to address one of the most pressing public health issues in our state by strengthening Maine’s weak gun laws.
On Jan. 3, more than 1,000 Mainers from across the state came together at the State House on the first day of the Legislative session to urge lawmakers to pass strong gun safety legislation in response to the Lewiston tragedy. Orange-clad citizens stood for nearly two hours in freezing temperatures in lines that wrapped around the building and through the parking lots.
In the packed Hall of Flags, Max Zachau, a 72-year-old lifelong hunter from Bowdoinham, made the heartbreaking point that Maine’s woefully inadequate gun safety laws “give a flock of ducks a better chance to escape than what we give to a classroom full of school kids.”
Zachau spoke directly to what motivated so many Mainers to show up in Augusta last week: the outrage that our loved ones — particularly our children — have to live in fear of being killed because of fixable flaws in our state’s laws.
Nearly 60 organizations, including Maine Gun Safety Coalition, Responsible Gun Owners of Maine, Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians, Maine Council of Churches, Maine Children’s Alliance, League of Women Voters, and more rallied their members to take action.
Legislators said that this was one of the largest turnouts they’d ever seen at the State House on any issue. And for good reason, because Mainers are ready for lawmakers to take action now on passing meaningful gun safety reforms.
Throughout the day, teachers and students, doctors and nurses, hunters, clergy, business owners and retirees, social workers, and parents walked the halls of the State House and talked with their lawmakers.
Our goal was straightforward: to demonstrate that Mainers from all walks of life and every political stripe demand strong gun safety legislation that will make our state safer.
The shooting on Oct. 25, in which Maine suffered the worst gun-related tragedy in our state’s history, was shocking and terrifying for us all. The current legislative session is our chance to take the steps we urgently need to prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again in our beloved state.
The Maine Gun Safety Coalition and our allies have agreed on four policy priorities: background checks on all gun sales; a 72-hour waiting period to buy a gun; an assault weapons ban; and a “red-flag” law that will empower courts to order the temporary removal of guns from people with demonstrably high risk of extremely dangerous behavior.
The data clearly show that states with fewer gun safety laws have more gun deaths, while the states that have enacted these types of gun reforms have significantly lower gun death rates. A strong coalition of our legislators understand that these four legislative priorities represent Maine’s best hope to prevent another mass shooting as well as day-to-day gun violence, and they are working hard to get these measures passed in the State House and onto the governor’s desk for signature.
Our legislative allies — and the vast majority of Mainers who also want gun safety reform — are committed to honoring those whose lives were lost on Oct. 25 by doing everything we can to make sure it never happens again.
We have an obligation to work together and to make the changes necessary to keep our children, our friends and families, and our communities safe.