Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
I believe that Maine needs to reset the balance between individual gun rights and public safety. How much of a burden is it to ask someone buying a deadly weapon like a gun to undergo a background check and to wait 72 hours? How do you compare that minor inconvenience to potentially saving a life? Would it be worth it if it saved your child’s life?
Immediate access to a deadly weapon like a gun greatly increases the chance of a fatality for someone like a depressed grandson, a daughter who is at risk from her domestic partner, innocent bystanders or a group of friends playing cornhole.
Requiring a 72-hour period between the purchase and possession of a gun, might enable someone to get the mental health care they need, or to implement an extreme risk protection order (red flag) or to simply de-escalate their anger. Extending background checks to private transactions at gun shows and sales via publications like Uncle Henry’s reduces the chance that “the bad guys” will obtain a gun.
Background checks on all gun sales, 72-hour waiting periods and red flag laws certainly will not stop all gun violence. However, data from other states show that they can stop some. Seventy-two percent of Mainers support background checks and 72-hour waiting periods according to a June 2023 poll. Let’s get these bills passed to make Maine safer and to save innocent lives.
Roy Hitchings
Camden
