On June 23, the Sun Journal published a compelling report on the plight of a Farmington mother and father who have a “violent” and “paranoid” son about to turn 18. The family will not able to prevent him from acquiring a gun once he reaches that age. The article states: “As a minor, he cannot legally obtain a gun, but when he turns 18 at the end of June, his family fears there will be no way to prevent him from getting one” and they “worry that he will commit a serious crime in a delusional state.” His mother is quoted as saying that: “If he’s delusional or paranoid and thinks you want to hurt him … he’s coming after you.”
She had “tried calling the police for help, but they have responded that unless he commits a crime, law enforcement cannot hold him.”
The article further noted that, “Robert Card, who committed the Oct. 2023 mass shooting that killed 18 in Lewiston … had similar dangerous delusions.” Similar to the plight of these Farmington parents, the family of Robert Card had asked law enforcement repeatedly to take his guns from him. When the police did not initiate the cumbersome “yellow flag” process to seek gun removal order, the family had no recourse. And without an option for Maine families to go directly to the court to ask for such a gun removal order, Card stayed in possession of his weapons – despite his disturbing and worrying behavior.
Many states, including Maine’s neighboring states of Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, give families the legal right to go directly to court to seek emergency orders to remove guns from their dangerous relatives. These laws are often referred to as extreme risk protection order (“ERPO”), or red flag laws.
Maine families have no such right.
To provide Maine families with such a right, last spring, the speaker of the House, Rachel Talbot Ross, submitted to the Maine Legislature a bill (co-sponsored by Rep. Kristen Cloutier of Lewiston and others), “An Act to Enact the Crisis Intervention Order Act to Protect the Safety of the Public.” The bill would give Maine families the right to go directly to court themselves to obtain an emergency gun removal order, instead of having to rely on the police to go for them under Maine’s “yellow flag” law.
The bill got massive support from Maine residents. At the legislative committee hearing on the bill, doctors, therapists, police, parents, students and teachers all testified in its favor. Opponents’ assertion that the bill would deny gun owners constitutional due process was discounted by the fact that the bill’s due-process protections were identical to the due-process protections in Maine’s yellow flag law – protections that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court held, in 2022, provided owners constitutional due process.
Although the legislative committee voted that the bill ought to pass, it was not brought to a vote before the full Legislature before it had to adjourn. The bill has not been enacted; the time for a vote on an Extreme Risk Protection Order law is yet to come. The Maine Gun Safety Coalition, a Maine nonprofit dedicated to the reduction of gun violence in Maine, is deeply committed to the passage of an extreme risk protection or crisis intervention law.
We need our fellow Maine residents to add their voice to this effort. Gun violence is preventable. Working together, we can keep our children safe and protect Maine families from gun violence.
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