Gov. Janet Mills endorsed a Republican lawmaker’s proposal that is also backed by gun-rights groups and competes with a “red flag” referendum facing Maine voters in November.
Mills, a Democrat, said in a Tuesday statement she supports a late-session measure from Rep. Jennifer Poirier, R-Skowhegan, that would essentially direct more funding to mental health treatment and law enforcement to help utilize the state’s existing “yellow flag” law that Mills worked with the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and gun-control advocates to craft in 2019.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee needs to hold an additional meeting on Poirier’s bill before members send it to voters. The statement from the governor, which was forwarded to the Bangor Daily News by David Trahan, the alliance’s executive director, appeared to be part of an effort from the governor to get legislative Democrats to move on the issue.
“The proposed competing measure enhances the current law without putting a burden on families and neighbors who want to keep themselves and others safe without putting themselves on the line,” Mills said.
The swift process would result in the November election ballot featuring multiple options for changing the current yellow flag law that requires police to initiate the process by taking people deemed dangerous into protective custody before they receive a medical evaluation and then go before a judge who decides whether they temporarily lose access to their weapons.
Gun-control advocates believe the current law is inadequate and stigmatizes mental health, and they have called for Maine to join 21 states with red flag laws that allow family members to ask a court to require a loved one to give up their firearms if a judge rules they are a threat to themselves or others. Those court decisions are also known as extreme risk protection orders.
Mills has repeatedly expressed her opposition to a red flag law by arguing it would undermine the yellow flag law that police have used more than 900 times since its inception. Most of that use came in a surge after the Lewiston mass shooting in 2023 that led lawmakers and Mills to pass changes meant to make it easier for police to take people into protective custody.
Poirier said Tuesday she spoke with House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, last week about holding a Judiciary Committee work session on her bill but that Fecteau has since indicated he will not direct another meeting to occur Wednesday, when lawmakers are back in Augusta to wrap up other work. Poirier called it “great news” that Mills is supporting her plan.
“It improves our yellow flag law that is working well,” Poirier said in a text message.
Fecteau did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The Democratic chairs of the Judiciary Committee held a public hearing on the red flag proposal earlier in June after gun-rights groups threatened to file a lawsuit if no public hearing took place on the measure that drew renewed attention after the mass shooting at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar that left 18 dead and 13 injured in the state’s deadliest rampage on record.
The governor’s top lawyer, Jerry Reid, and Maine State Police Lt. Michael Johnston testified against the measure, with Reid saying the mental health assessment serves as a bulwark against constitutional concerns while Johnston said the red flag law could lead to more dangerous situations for police serving red flag orders.
The Legislature ran out of time last year to consider a red flag bill, so a group led by the Maine Gun Safety Coalition that includes family members of Lewiston shooting victims collected more than 80,000 signatures to qualify a red flag question for this year’s ballot.
Maine Gun Safety Coalition Executive Director Nacole Palmer referred to the warning signs about the Army reservist who carried out the Lewiston shooting, saying Tuesday the “yellow flag law that Gov. Mills and the gun lobby support was in place and failed to prevent the tragedy in Lewiston, one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.”
