Article By Beth Brogan. Originally printed in The Times Record

LISBON — Proposals by Republican state legislators to relax Maine’s gun control laws set the stage for a new political standoff at the State House.

Among the handful of bills expected to set off the biggest firestorm is legislation sponsored by Rep. Dale Crafts, R-Lisbon, that would — among other changes — repeal the requirement for a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Maine.

LD 658, “An Act To Modify the Requirement of a Permit To Carry a Concealed Weapon,” would make Maine’s concealed weapons law “similar to Vermont, Arizona and Alaska law, which basically allows you to carry without a permit, but restricts” the law if someone doesn’t hold a permit, Crafts said.

Current Maine law requires anyone who wishes to carry a concealed weapon to obtain a permit. Local law enforcement agencies now process concealed weapons applications. Other laws prohibit guns from being taken into such locations as schools, courthouses and the State House.

Crafts’ bill also would reduce fees related to acquiring gun permits, extend the duration of carry permits and allow applicants to apply a gun safety course taken at any time as a qualification for a permit. At present, Mainers must demonstrate that they completed a gun safety course within five years of applying for a permit.

On Thursday, the bill was referred to the Legislature’s Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. It has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing.

Opponents, including Democratic legislators and gun control advocates, call Crafts’ legislation “outrageous” and “a nightmare.”

Armed Equals Safer

“I have been telling people this,” Crafts said Tuesday. “When you look at the tragedy in Arizona with the congresswoman (Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.) ... just imagine if some of her staff were (gun) carriers. I’m not saying there would have been (fewer) people killed, but there could have been. It only makes sense that with criminals around, why shouldn’t we be armed? Especially with her being a congresswoman. We have some crazy people out there.”

Crafts referred to a Jan. 8, 2011, shooting near Tucson, Ariz., in which Giffords was shot in the head, six people were killed and 13 others injured after a man opened fire at a supermarket where Giffords was meeting constituents.

Crafts pointed to a provision in his bill that would allow permit holders to take concealed weapons into more locations, noting, “I’m trying to encourage people to get a concealed weapons permit because I believe an armed society is a safer society.”

“People are going to say, ‘You didn’t have a background check, you didn’t take a safety course,’” Crafts said of anticipated opposition. “They going to argue it’s not a good law because it makes it less restrictive, but it makes where you carry more restrictive.”

Crafts’ bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Garrett Mason, R-Lisbon, and eight Republican members of the House of Representatives.

Mason, Senate chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, said Tuesday that he supports Crafts’ bill, pending the committee’s discussion of the proposal.

“It’s an important conversation to have, especially in light of the things that happened in Arizona with Rep. Giffords,” Mason said. “It’s important to make sure people have their constitutional right to carry a weapon.”

‘Outrageous’

But Sen. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, on Tuesday described Crafts’ bill as “outrageous.” She, too, pointed to the Giffords shooting in Arizona, but used the incident to argue against the legislation.

“I don’t even have enough words to tell you how upset this makes me,” Craven said Tuesday of LD 658. “I think the purpose of carrying a weapon is to intimidate others and (the bill would) make (guns) very, very available to young people — to children — who are just playing with them, who don’t even know the danger of them. In the wake of all that has happened in this country in the last four or five years, and indeed in the last few weeks in Arizona, I don’t know what the big push is to make sure people have weapons, and access to weapons.”

Bill Harwood, an attorney and member of the board of Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence, said Tuesday that about a half-dozen bills submitted this session have drawn that group’s attention. While the organization has not taken a position on Crafts’ bill, Harwood said, “I suspect we will oppose this bill and will work hard to convince legislators that in its form, it is not good public policy.”

“This is really a sad development where extreme members of the gun lobby are pushing a kind of legislation that would essentially try to arm every citizen on the false premise that we are somehow safer by introducing more guns into society,” Harwood said. “The reality is — and all of the reputable and reliable statistics and studies have demonstrated — that the presence of guns makes it more dangerous and more likely that someone will be shot, not less likely.”

Harwood, too, pointed to the shooting in Arizona, noting, “After the shooter had shot 19 people, another individual with a concealed weapon ... came to the scene and was ready to start shooting when he saw an individual with a firearm. By his own testimony, he said it was ‘just lucky I didn’t shoot because if I had, I would have shot someone who had just subdued the shooter.’”

Second Amendment

While Crafts said all co-sponsors of the bill are “very strong supporters of the Second Amendment,” Harwood took issue with Crafts’ characterization of legislation as a Second Amendment issue.

“This bill has nothing to do with the Second Amendment, it has nothing to do with the Maine hunting tradition,” Harwood said. “This is a bill that says, we want a society in which, whether we’re at a high school football game, whether we’re at the Old Port on a Saturday night in the summer, or at the fireworks on the Fourth of July when alcohol is consumed — this bill says it’s OK to have people there who have concealed weapons.”

Crafts said LD 658 is not part of any organized effort to repeal gun control laws, although he added, “I think what you’ll find this term is a lot of legislation we tried to get through in the past and couldn’t get anywhere.”

Republicans gained majorities in the Maine House and Senate as a result of the November 2010 election — for the first time since the 1970s.

“There’s a new group of legislators — some have been in quite awhile — who are trying to weaken the concealed weapons permit process,” Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, said Tuesday. “They’ve been bringing laws before the Legislature for years now and whittling away slowly at (state gun control laws). Maine is one of the safest states in the country, but it has some very relaxed gun laws and there’s been a steady movement of relaxing those laws on carrying weapons over the years.”

Gerzofsky, who also sits on the Criminal Justice Committee, said, “The committee has traditionally voted in favor of the NRA proposals,” both due to lobbying efforts and the make-up of the committee — some of whom “are very strong NRA members.”

Calls to the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action on Tuesday were not returned.

“Republicans and Democrats have different views on how they think government should run and what government’s responsibility is to the people,” Mason said. “That’s what you’re seeing. Republicans are in charge right now and we have an agenda we feel is important to put in front of the people for their opinion.”

For Craven, however, that agenda isn’t acceptable.

“I think (the Republicans) are out of control with the guns and the violence and the intimidation and that they don’t care about their community and they don’t care about a peaceful society,” Craven said.

Police Perspective

BRUNSWICK — A recent background check as part of the application process to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon is just one example that led Brunswick Police Cmdr. Kevin Schofield and Chief Richard Rizzo to deny a permit, but Schofield said today he denies only eight or 10 permits a year, with 167 permits issued in 2010.

Currently, 550 people in Brunswick hold a permit to carry a concealed weapon, having passed the application process overseen by Schofield.

But background checks have turned up some applicants who don’t pass criteria police deem necessary for a permit.

In one case, Schofield said he found a man who had indicated on the application that he had never been investigated for violence against family members but who had actually been arrested twice for terrorizing his now-estranged wife, and then charged with violating bail related to the same charge.

“He’d also had a protection-from-abuse hearing at which the judge quoted him saying he wished his wife was dead,” Schofield said.

In another instance, an application was denied when the person had been less-than-honorably discharged from he military, experienced seven previous license suspensions, and an arrest for operating under the influence resulting in a crash — with a blood alcohol level of nearly three times the legal limit.

“We would articulate that calls into question somebody’s ability to use sound judgment and reckless behavior without consideration for the safety of other people,” Schofield said.

Schofield said today that the current permitting system for carrying a concealed weapon “is reasonable” because it allows police to investigate someone’s character and mental health, “to ensure the safety of the general public.”

- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• < Prev
• Next >