“This referendum has been coming for some time, and all of its support is coming from out of state. You’ve seen the media buys and the ads they’ve run so far. They’ve spent $4 million so far, and they could spend up to $8 million before they’re done. It’s an uphill battle for us. It makes David and Goliath look like a shoe-in.” – Todd Tolhurst in Ballot question has Lewiston (Maine) gun show attendees on edge [via sunjournal.com]
If it passes they can probably thank the Massholes.
Possibly, but Maine has gone (D) in every Presidential election since 88′. I think they should look at getting their own house in order so these “outside” influences can’t take root.
Well I was specifically referring to the Massholes who have relocated to Maine (and vote) as opposed to the ones just visiting or pumping money into a campaign. They’re probably largely responsible for the state’s presidential preferences as well.
Point taken, you’re probably right.
Snowbird / vacationing Massholes who also vote in other states.
Maine also likes to vote R but elect Ds to the US Senate. For example, the Olympic Snowjob made Mark Kirk look like a Republican and Collins appears to be no better.
Put the steering wheel of your life into the hands of everybody else. Most dont know or care where youre headed. Others are totally disinterested in you and your car and some dont even know how to drive but if you dont think their opinion counts as much as your own youre a hate filled bigot. Democracy!
In some ways I prefer despotic dictatorships over democracy. At least the whims of a madman can be excused as being the whims of a madman but there’s something much more terrifying to know your existence is in the hands of the retard mass out there. Those clowns binge watching the Kardashians have more control over your life than you do. Hopefully theyre too detached to bother to participate.
I smell a rat named Bloomberg. This evil rodent won’t be satisfied until he’s stripped all citizens of their RKBA.
Yup. It’s the same MO as what they did in Washington State a year or two back.
Somebody really needs to exercise a 2nd amendment veto on Bloomberg.
We are not nearing that point, we have passed it! What am I talking about? The point at which the people are willing to suffer so long as it is sufferable and will do nothing to break the chain a of the ever encroaching Tyranny. Now, in the course of THESE human events, the time has come to dissolve the bonds that bind us as a people. We are two countries divided beyond repair (there are divides even within those halves, but primarily two). One group of Americans wants a society where you cannot fail and the government is your safety net for all things. They don’t have any understanding of history or economics. These people still state things like “we are the richest country on earth” so we should provide…”. These people dismiss the nearly $21T debt and $120T in unfunded liabilities that is rarely discussed. It doesn’t occur to them at all that the reason our Senators and Representatives show no sense of urgency on the matter is because they already know that there is no mathematically possible way of fixing our pending financial demise. These people honestly believe that the reason congress doesn’t act is because the economy isn’t nearly as bad as some claim it is.
They are in DENIAL! We are a hopelessly broken nation and the fingers can be pointed in all directions. The main culprit though is the hardest to accept. It is WE THE PEOPLE that have allowed this to continue for fear that any action we might take could destroy our extremely comfortable lifestyles. Well, whether we the people force a change, or if wait and bide our time, the comfortable lives we fear losing will come to an end. Whichever decision is made will only hasten or prolong the inevitable.
The other side, mostly believes in a limited government, but all too often when they hear what must be done to save this once great nation, they too find themselves in denial once faced with the harsh realities of what it will mean to both our militarily might and international influence. Even when they learn about some of the domestic programs that have to go away, they baulk and cannot being themselves to do the things that MUST be done.
We are on borrowed time. Our nation will have its very own 12/26/91 moment and collapse the same way the soviets did 25yrs ago. Whether we take our medicine quickly or as I suspect we will, we’ll continue to stretching out the monetary collapse thus prolonging our inevitable demise and lengthening the agony and pain the masses will certainly face just to save the elites.
The time has passed to save the Republic as founded. However, it is up to us to determine the kind of nation we want to be once we are able to get to rebuilding her. When the collapse comes, the people will want blood. It won’t be unlike the French Revolution (which is bad). The Right will blame the Left for the welfare state destroying us and they will be right. The left will blame the 1% and they’ll blame our global military actions. They too will be right. The 1% will be to blame in part, not because they are rich, but because they corrupted our political system. If our political leadership and their benefactors (the 1%) are able to protect themselves from the angry masses, there will be a Tyranny like we’ve never seen. They’ll hunker down and destroy all of our god given liberties. If they can’t wall themselves in, they’ll be hanged or shot by the hoardes who find them. However, the vacuum of leadership would also pave the way to Tyranny as it did in France we too will get our Bonaparte. And, if that doesn’t happen, we’ll see another bloody and long civil war in this nation. I pray that I am wrong, but somehow, in my gut and down to me very core, I know this is the future that awaits us.
Well stated!
How did such a piece of ‘grass roots’ proposition pass after Mainers passed ‘Constitutional Carry’ ??. Pretty much exemplifies the email sent to Podesta: ” we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly.”
May it be now, in my time, and recovered for my daughters’ time.
Typical shoddy reporting represented by this line from the article:
“If they [voters] approve, it (Proposition 3] would require background checks gun sales or transfers at private gun shows and private sales. Sales in gun shops already require background checks.”
Gun shops require background checks because they’re in the business of trading in firearms, which requires a federal firearms license, which in turn requires licensees (FFLs) to initiate a background with thr FBI. Location of the sale doesn’t matter. What matters is whether the seller holds an FFL.
There’s nothing special about “private gun shows” that exempts anyone from any law that they aren’t already subject to outside of the gun show. The sellers of firearms at gun shows are virtually all FFLs. They’re already obligated to initiate a ln FBI background check regardless whethet they’re selling at a gun show, at a retail shop, or across their kitchen table, as many low volume FFLs do.
Gun grabbers just use the mythical “gun show loophole” as a trick to repackage what their proposal really is: a ban on all private sales of firearms and imposition of a national firearms registration.
Think about it. Only FFLs have access to initiate FBI background checks. Requiring such checks means that two law abiding individuals will no longer be allowed to conduct their lawful transaction privately between themselves. Now they’ll have to go through a government licensee and document the transaction. This only infringes their rights and does nothing to curb violent crime. Criminals already get and will continue to obtain their firearms via theft, the black market, and their criminal associates.
Not only that, but watch as plenty of folks become “criminals” because they refuse to go along with this nonsense. That’s the real jackpot for the statists: they can point to people who are simply minding their own business and call them criminals because they won’t kowtow to this new law, and every person who prides himself on being a “law-abiding gun owner” will take the side of the tyrants.
What’s a Private Gun Show?
Is it anything like a Tupperware Party?
Where do I sign up to host one in my living room?
Aren’t political ads required to identify the organizations that make them, and the source of funding?
If we’re worried about the influence of money in politics, wouldn’t that help?
“This ad has been brought to you by Bloomie in Other People’s Business, because being a billionaire means what you don’t own you can buy. Like your state.”
“Paid for by Conservative Citizens for Responsible Gun Ownership.”
Or some such rubbish.
Can name their organizations anything they want.
The organization probably needs to file campaign disclosures to identify where their money is coming from (state laws vary), but that won’t be disclosed in the ad itself.
The biggest problem with our representative republic is that is relies on the intelligence of the voters.
God help us.
Be more concerned with Bloomberg-type organizations that hide their true intentions by naming themselves something that sounds conservative-patriotic.
Especially when used in ballot initiatives that subvert civil rights…
Maine’s question 3, is a near mirror image of Question 1 in NV (and Washington’s i594).
Section 8 of Question 3 in Maine reads the same as section 6 of Question 1 in NV regarding “Temporary Transfers”. (Why is that you ask? Because they were all drafted by Bloomberg’s puppet groups then given to the local anti-gun groups to use in ballot initiatives) This section will make criminals of typical gun owner behavior
Section 8 (and Section 6 in NV) stipulates what IS legal, therefore, all other transfers are illegal. The paragraph the the voters will see gives a summary of temporary transfers, however, the details are what are going to bite gun owners. Let us look at what would not be legal:
• Do you shoot in an open shooting area with a buddy? Don’t hand him your firearm (illegal as not at a designated range).
• Have a friend who does light gunsmithing, adds accessories, or has the tools to do repairs and upgrades? Or just properly mount a scope? Unless you both go to an FFL and get a background check, then do it all over again when you ‘transfer’ it back, illegal.
• Have a friend who’s a CCW holder, but his/her gun is in the shop for repairs? Don’t loan a pistol, as that is illegal (not imminent jeopardy). (IN NV, not sure how CCW holders are covered in Maine, we have an exemption in NV currently)
• Leaving town and want to store your firearms in a friends safe? Or have a safe that you occasionally store a friends firearms in when he is out of town? Illegal without going through the transfer process. (Well, unless you are a priest who hates guns…then the state won’t be able to ‘find’ evidence against you…)
• This legislation, which is a near carbon copy of i594 from Washington, would also make certain tools ‘firearms’ for the purpose of requiring a background check. Don’t hand the nailgun that uses primers to your buddy on the job site…that would be illegal under this legislation.
• Ever loan a friend a gun to hunt? Well, as long as you stick right by him you’re okay, but don’t wander off back to camp, or let him ‘borrow’ it for a hunting trip you’re not going on. Illegal. You can only ‘loan’ a firearm for hunting purposes if you are in proximity to the borrower.
• Own or operate a ranch where you have ‘ranch guns’ (guns that are checked out on a daily basis for ranch hands). Sorry, can’t do that anymore. Illegal.
Finally, keep in mind that if you go through the ‘transfer’ process (to say, loan a friend a gun so he can go hunt whilst his is in the shop), you have transferred OWNERSHIP of the gun to the person. You no longer own it, he/she does. Doesn’t matter if you call it a loan, the gun is no longer legally yours.
Seriously, read the legislation. The ‘universal background check’ portion is only part of what is bad. The temporary transfers section will make criminals out of normal everyday gun owners for activities that are common and harmless.
The Bloomberg/Everytown people put the same flawed language out each year without ever acknowledging the criticisms leveled at it. It appears the over-criminalization of transfers in their initiative is a feature, not a flaw.
As was said this is a plagiarism of Washington’s I-594.
There it was run with slick professional commercials full of half truths. As example one had a pretty blond talking about how her Dad had killed Mom. Eh, Dad as a police officer. He used his issued gun. Another said her was from a specific town and related his story. Problem was the town was in another state. The ad deliberately created the impression it was Washington.
Going on two years and guess what? Nobody has been arrested, much less prosecuted under the law. Not even criminals convicted of gun crimes.
Bloomberg bought NYC for $268 million, which was his personal, out of pocket campaign expenditure for his three elections.
In that context, Maine is overpriced at $8 million, even if it is Bloomberg chump change.
Do you believe in private property? Do you really think you still have property rights in this country? Do you believe that you own your home?
I think it’s past time to openly defy these unconstitutional laws. One way to do so would be for gun owners to reassert their right to private property by having massive gun swapping parties to trade Glock for Glock and exchange AR lower, and so forth.
If just A FEW people did it, they would be criminals but if EVERYONE did it, we would have liberty.
So why are ballots allowed anyway? Doesn’t that allow for direct democracy, which we are a republic (and fifty mini-republics essentially) precisely to prevent?
If we were really fifty mini-republics, then outside money would be illegal and those providing it could be prosecuted.
I’ve never understood why that isn’t the case.
This out of state money is just putrid.
Why do we still allow state elections to be bought by out-of-state big money? We don’t allow interests from foreign countries to influence our federal elections. So why do we still allow outsiders to influence our state-level elections?