Maine poised to pass gun safety bills after deadliest shooting in state history

After experiencing the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history last year, Maine is poised to pass a series of new gun safety bills meant to minimize the chances of an even worse attack occurring in the future.

Maine’s state house on Monday followed its senate in approving the governor’s omnibus gun safety bill that strengthens the state’s so-called “yellow flag” law, boosts background checks for private sales of guns and makes it a crime to recklessly sell a gun to a prohibited person. The bill also funds violence prevention initiatives and opens a mental health crisis receiving center in Lewiston, Maine, where 18 people were killed and 13 others were wounded in a shooting on 25 October.

The massacre took place at the Just-in-Time Recreation bowling alley and then continued at a nearby restaurant. The slayings shook the community and inspired calls from constituents and lawmakers for meaningful gun reform.

But those calls coming from within a state boasting a rich culture and history of hunting met pushback from influential gun owners’ rights groups.

Those same groups opposed universal background checks on firearm purchases that voters in the state rejected in 2016.

There are still more votes scheduled in the Democratic-controlled legislature before it adjourns on Wednesday.

Maine’s house is scheduled to also vote on two bills approved by the senate: waiting periods for gun purchases and a ban on bump stocks.

One firearms safety bill that failed was a proposal to let gun violence victims sue weapon manufacturers. And so far, neither chamber has voted on a proposal for a red flag law that allows family members to petition a judge to remove guns from someone who is in a psychiatric crisis. That proposal differs from the state’s current yellow flag law that puts police in the lead of that process.

Meanwhile, another measure sponsored by the house speaker, Rachel Talbot Ross, to fund a range of mental health and violence prevention initiatives awaits money in the final budget.

Police were warned by family members of the October 2023 mass shooter – an army reservist who died by suicide – that he was becoming paranoid and losing his grip on reality before the attack. He was hospitalized last summer while training with his army reserve unit, and his best friend, a fellow reservist, warned that the man was going “to snap and do a mass shooting”.

The shooting prompted an investigation into the mental health of the shooter at the direction of his family. Results revealed he had suffered traumatic brain injuries in the past.

Ann McKee, a physician at Boston University’s chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) center, where the shooter’s brain tissue was analyzed, said in a statement: “While I cannot say with certainty that these pathological findings underlie [his] behavioral changes in the last 10 months of life, based on our previous work, brain injury likely played a role in his symptoms.”