The Maine Legislature is weighing whether to require the destruction of all guns taken from people in connection with their conviction of a crime.
The bill represents another example of how Maine leaders are responding to the Oxford County sheriff trading guns from evidence to a local gun shop without following the legally required steps or documenting the deal, and it builds into a range of gun- and public safety-focused proposals before lawmakers.
Oxford County commissioners have asked Gov. Janet Mills to remove elected Sheriff Christopher Wainwright from office in part for what they described as his “unauthorized, illegal trade of firearms,” which was first uncovered by the Bangor Daily News in August. Mills has not yet announced when a hearing on Wainwright’s removal will take place.
Now Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, is sponsoring a bill, LD 2086, to require all forfeited guns in Maine to be destroyed. She also recently amended the bill to ban bump stocks or other rapid-fire devices attached to semi-automatic weapons as part of a suite of legislative proposals filed in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting.
Maine currently requires all forfeited firearms used in the commission of a murder or homicide to be destroyed, but police may sell guns used in other crimes. This bill would require all forfeited firearms — that owners gave up rights to as part of their criminal conviction — to be destroyed. The bill wouldn’t apply to guns in evidence that police hold temporarily.
Carney, a lawyer, said a constituent contacted her after reading about the Oxford County sheriff, and asked her to look into what could be done. After reviewing Maine law and federal regulations, Carney said she believes it makes sense to destroy all guns used in crimes that have gone through the forfeiture process, to prevent them from being used in another crime.
As chair of the Legislature’s judiciary committee, Carney is responsible for collecting the annual reports presented by Maine’s Deadly Force Review Panel, which studies officer-involved shootings. Since its inception in 2019, the panel has found that people had a firearm in 72 percent of deadly force incidents with police.
“I really take to heart the concern on the part of law enforcement officials that guns used in crimes not go back into circulation and injure Mainers, visitors to Maine and law enforcement officers. That’s the concern, and it’s a really deeply felt concern,” she said.
The Maine Sheriffs’ Association’s legislative policy committee has not yet considered taking a position on the bill, said Executive Director Mary-Anne LaMarre.
The Maine Chiefs of Police Association did not respond to a phone call.
Unlike in Maine, federal law enforcement agencies are never supposed to resell forfeited guns regardless of the crime or the worth of the gun. Most often they are destroyed, except in rare cases where they may be used for ballistics testing or rendered inoperable and put on display.
The U.S. Department of Justice “has concluded that the forfeiture of firearms and ammunition involved in crime constitutes a compelling law enforcement interest. Because cheap firearms used criminally cause harm the same as expensive ones, there is a strong law enforcement interest in removing both types from circulation,” states its manual on asset forfeiture policy.
Going through forfeiture proceedings in court protects the due process rights of firearms’ owners and gives seizing agencies clarity about their ownership, the department’s manual says.
Gov. Janet Mills has unveiled her own measures in response to the October mass shooting in Lewiston: to require background checks for all advertised gun sales, upgrade the crime of selling a gun to a prohibited person from a misdemeanor to a felony, and tweak Maine’s “yellow flag” law to make it easier for police to take people into protective custody and temporarily confiscate their firearms.
She also supports establishing more crisis receiving centers, creating a new Office of Violence Prevention, expanding mobile crisis response services and hiring more state troopers.
In addition to destroying forfeited guns and instituting a bump stock ban, legislative Democrats have proposed requiring waiting periods for gun purchases and additional violence prevention initiatives.
Many police departments in Maine already send their firearms to be destroyed. But an investigation by The New York Times found that one gun destruction company, GunBusters, which has a location in Hermon, is not always fully destroying the guns. Instead the company has disassembled them, pulverized parts, and sold the rest of the components as gun kits.
Carney said it is her intent that the legislation actually results in forfeited guns being destroyed. While there is currently no penalty written into the bill for police departments or others that don’t destroy forfeited guns, she said it will be an important topic to explore during the bill’s public hearing.
A public hearing on LD 2086 is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 5, before the judiciary committee.