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Dr. Joe Anderson, a pediatric hospitalist in Lewiston, is the advocacy chair for the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the founder of Maine Providers for Gun Safety.
On the night of Oct. 25, 2023, I stood with my colleagues in the emergency department as victims of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting began arriving. The chaos, confusion, grief and helplessness I witnessed that evening will stay with me forever.
That night marked a turning point. I had long advocated for common-sense gun safety as a pediatrician, but after Lewiston, the urgency became unbearable. Along with several fellow pediatricians, I helped form Maine Providers for Gun Safety. Within weeks, more than 500 physicians and other health care professionals and health care associations joined our call. We understand that gun violence is a public health crisis requiring a multifaceted response.
One proven approach, supported by nearly every major medical organization in the country from the American Medical Association to the American Academy of Pediatrics, is the extreme risk protection order (ERPO) law. That’s why as a doctor and someone who witnessed the tragedy of Lewiston close-up, I plan to vote “yes” on Question 2 this November.
I strongly believe Question 2 will save lives by empowering family members to go directly to a court when a loved one is in crisis and, if a court deems the person dangerous, temporarily restrict their access to deadly weapons. As pediatricians, we’re trained to listen when parents or family members sense that something is wrong, because their intuition is often right. Extreme risk protection order laws work on that same principle: Families often recognize crisis before anyone else.
Maine’s existing “yellow flag” law, passed in 2019, is the only one of its kind in the nation. And Mainers, as well as law enforcement, have made it work as best we can, as it’s been used over 1,000 times since its passage. But it was also an experiment, and like any experiment, it must be judged by its results.
When harm occurs in the hospital, we conduct a thorough review of the factors surrounding the case — not to assign blame, but to identify system gaps and prevent future tragedies. What we know now is that the current law existed and failed to prevent the tragedy in Lewiston, despite numerous warnings by the would-be shooter’s family that he was dangerous. Our current law gave them no way to take direct action. Had a real ERPO law been in place, the outcome could have been different.
That’s why passing Question 2 is so important. In both medicine and law, we see redundancy as a strength, not a weakness. Hospitals have multiple layers of safety checks as a proven approach to prevent harm. Similarly, Question 2 builds in another safeguard, a second way to intervene before tragedy strikes. In addition to empowering families to take action, it also streamlines the process for law enforcement, allowing them to also go directly to a court and file to disarm someone they know is dangerous.
I was incredibly frustrated that despite intense pressure from both the medical community and the general public, lawmakers failed to pass a stronger extreme risk protection order in response to the Lewiston tragedy. But when leaders didn’t act, Mainers did. Doctors, nurses, and other clinicians joined hundreds of volunteers across the state to gather more than 80,000 signatures to bring Question 2 to the ballot. It was proof that when something matters deeply, Mainers don’t wait for permission from politicians to do what’s right.
Question 2 isn’t about politics, it’s about prevention. It’s about giving families a chance to act before tragedy strikes again. It’s about trusting Mainers to recognize danger and step in to save lives. It’s about honoring our state’s long tradition of responsible gun ownership by ensuring that dangerous weapons don’t end up in the wrong hands at the wrong time.
Lewiston changed me. It changed all of us. The question now is whether we’ll allow that night to change our laws as well. On Nov. 4, we have a chance to say yes: yes to protecting families, yes to preventing suicide, yes to keeping our communities safe. For our children, our neighbors, and the Maine we love, I’ll be voting “yes” on Question 2. I hope you will too.
Election notice: The BDN will stop accepting letters and columns related to the Nov. 4 election on Wednesday, Oct. 29. Not all submissions can be published.
