Despite the failures that are being discovered that led to the Lewiston, Maine shooting, the Gun Control Industry is, as usual, pointing at the state’s allegedly lax regulation of guns. Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun agitprop outlet The Trace asked, Will Maine’s Permissive Gun Laws Change After the Lewiston Shooting?
It’s certainly possible. Democrats are in full control of state government, so the odds are in their favor in that regard. That doesn’t mean, however, that there would be any merit to changing Maine’s gun laws. Not given the laws they’re talking about.
It’s becoming clear that they see this as a “grab bag” opportunity to enact more gun control laws in the Pine Tree State. They aren’t just talking about laws that could plausibly have made a difference in this case, either. They want to crack down on gun rights in general.
Maine doesn’t have restrictions on AR-style rifles, like the one apparently used by the Lewiston gunman, nor does it regulate high-capacity magazines.
If the killer had used a Mini-14 with a ten-round magazine, would the death toll have been lower? That seems a tenuous claim, considering how fast reloads actually happen when someone knows what they are doing (as this veteran and firearm instructor did, sadly). And it was reported that the Parkland shooter used 10-round magazines on purpose because they fit better into his backpack. Yet he managed to kill and wound a similar number of people.
…a measure requiring the prompt reporting of lost or stolen firearms…
This is one of the rare gun laws I do support, so long as it provides a fair amount of time to comply, and conditioned on when you become aware of a lost or stolen gun. If you become aware you lost a gun or had one stolen, tell the police about it ASAP. But such a law, of course, wouldn’t have done anything to stop the Maine shooting if it had been on the books.
But [Bates College professor Michael] Rocque said the state’s “inconsistent” rules around guns — which require residents to take a safety course and exam to qualify for a hunting license but don’t require anything of concealed handgun carriers — are in dire need of an update.
This is where the push for more gun control after a tragedy really becomes something of a loot-fest, trying to take full advantage of the situation while it’s still in the news. Carry permit requirements are completely irrelevant to mass shooters. They obviously aren’t going to be concerned in the slightest about not having a carry permit when their intention is to commit mass murder.
It’s an utterly absurd argument that, again, would have had no impact at all on what Robert Card did.
Even outside of the mass shooting context, Professor Rocque’s implication is that the lack of a permit requirement is inherently unsafe. That’s an extraordinary claim, given that Maine has one of the lowest homicide rates in the nation. Maine’s homicide rate is so low that more people were killed in Lewiston in this one incident than are usually murdered in the state in an entire year.
The Trace article concludes that while other gun control pushes aren’t possible under the state’s rules until next year, they can still try to enact universal background checks in January.
Again, that would have had zero impact on the Lewiston shooter. The Lewiston killer bought his guns legally. When that happened or whether or not he lied about his history of mental illness at the time isn’t yet clear, but he did undergo a background check.
As is so frequently the case, the Gun Control Industry and politicians seem determined to punish the community of law-abiding gun owners for the inherent failures of the regulatory system they’ve built
As more details are learned about Robert Card, his mental history, and the failures of law enforcement in this situation, the more it becomes clear that Maine’s allegedly lax gun laws did nothing to make the Lewiston shooting possible. And the new laws The Trace and gun control advocates are calling for in response would do nothing to prevent another similar situation.
Konstadinos Moros is an Associate Attorney with Michel & Associates, a law firm in Long Beach that regularly represents the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) in its litigation efforts to restore the Second Amendment in California. You can find him on his Twitter handle @MorosKostas. To donate to CRPA or become a member, visit https://crpa.org/.
This post was adapted by TTAG from tweets posted by Konstadinos Moros.
As they’ve said, never let a crisis go to waste
Once again knee jerk sleazy Gun Control rides in on the coattails of unarmed defenseless victims…
ìhttps://youtube.com/watch?v=NxW1MnJgBvs&feature=shared
Correction…
Sticking to the script.
“Sticking to the script.”
It’s easier on them when they goose-step in unison… 🙁
Well you see Kyle……
Ironically it wasn’t any of Maines lax laws that enabled the shooter. He passed a check. He had training on par or beyond what a permit requirement would necessitate. I believe he used an AR-10 so those were probably 10 and 20 rounders not the evil 30 round boxes that are only found forged in Mordor.
It was a failure of Maines less lax yellow flag law paired with a catastrophic yet all too regular failure of federal, state and local authorities to get on the same page that let this happen.
So naturally the power structure wants more of this because they only want to inflict pain on their political enemies. The good Democrats of Urbanville, USA won’t be abiding any new legislation but Cracker Jackson in Maine probably will because he’s known to be a putz, pushover and doormat.
The so-called yellow flag law probably didn’t work due to the almost nonexistent mechanism for medical institutions to report individuals directly to law enforcement for mental health related treatments.
The police tried and failed to make contact with him, then called his brother and were told that his family would make sure to remove his weapons. The yellow flag law was never even attempted to be enacted.
Appears to also be a failure of NY’s “red flag” law, under which he could have been reported and presumably put on the NICS database.
Red flag, yellow flag, checkered flag…
I recommend a crackdown on absurd reporting and that “journalists” get state sanctioned permits before submitting grossly anti-Constitutional dreck for general consumption. Moreover, leftist university professors should need yearly approvals to teach any person over the age of eleven months.
I understand that Maine is a Constitutional Carry state. I was unpleasantly surprised that no one in both the bowling center or the restaurant was armed and could have prevented or greatly reduced the death toll. The low crime and murder rate in Maine maybe made them complacent, so they left their defensive arms at home.
Both venues’ owners posted “please don’t bring your gun here, since we prefer our patrons be disarmed helpless victims”.
Lawful carriers (both licensed and license-free) tend to be polite and comply with such requests, either by voluntarily disarming themselves, or by withholding their business.
Maybe now those lawful carriers who are inclined to patronize business who hate them, will at least be self-respecting enough to carry there anyway.
Exactly, this is a bit of a weird state very liberal on the southern coast and very conservative everywhere else. We talk about two Maine’s and its pretty true.
“I was unpleasantly surprised that no one in both the bowling center or the restaurant was armed and could have prevented or greatly reduced the death toll.”
The lack of return fire also may have been a lack of desire to engage a shooter at a distance with a rifle, while all they may have had was a pocket 9 or .357…
Murder isn’t illegal enough so, obviously, some other law will “solve” the problem.
Conversation I’ve had with many gun controllers:
Them: We need common sense gun laws.
Me: Like what?
Them: Proceeds to list off a bunch of things that are already the law.
Every damn time.
Dont know about the rest of you but if a gunm of mine gets lost or stolen after ranting and raving and calming down the first thing I do is call the cops it got stolen. You dont want Red Hot Pu$$y Liquor’s store getting robbed and them finding your gunm.
Always tell the cops it got stole, even if you lost it.
It’s a tradeoff. You get legal Butt sex and drugs. In exchange for giving up your civil rights. Now will see if the 2A supporting Democrat is a myth?? Or is it a reality???
And didn’t the Libertarians flood into the state of Maine many years ago??
I thought they controlled the state?
If you’re thinking of the Free State Project, the few who carried through came to NH, not ME.
I hope they are better libertarians, than the libertarians I read in Reason Magazine.
The only law needed, was one to keep the perp in the institution after he spoke of shooting up a military base. At that point, they should’ve been able to get a search warrant for the residence to check for weapons.
I would imagine there are those that believe this was a set-up, as some other mass shootings have been thought to be.
Either way, the guns were not the cause, nor the problem.
The person was, and the inability to keep them inside, were.
The Left continues to stick to their agenda of disarming Americans for the sake of…? If you take guns away from law abiding citizens, only the criminals will have guns.
the best thing that we can do is to write to our representatives, both local and federal, to express our feelings and concerns. express oneself clearly, state facts and be polite.
All of our rumblings here and on other sites is only ‘preaching to the coir’.
LEOs were ultimately responsible for this tragedy. One of his buddies reported to them that Robert was ready to snap and go on a shooting spree. The police dropped the ball as they usually do. I do not trust police officers at all.
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