Please find below important updates on the following:

• Gun Bills Work Session 3/27
• Status of Ethics Complaint
• SAFER Course Back Online
• Front Porch Politics with Tim Boyum: a post-Lewiston Shooting documentary that President Laura Whitcomb and Gun Rights Activist Robert Duhaime participated in entitled "Guns: United in Grief, Divided on Solutions"
• The Last Line of Defense: Why Guns are Necessary to Preserve Liberty Forum in Waterville Maine on April 13th.

Gun Bills Work Session #3:

We fully anticipate that anti-gun Legislators will try and insert a full "Red Flag" law as an amendmen. We also received word of a new amendment to the Governor's Bill (see below) ahead of tomorrow's anticipated vote.

Work Session #3

Wednesday, March 27, 2024 at 1:00 PM

State House, Room 438

LD 2238: An Act to Address Gun Violence in Maine by Requiring a Waiting Period for Certain Firearm Purchases

Bill language can be found here. 

LD 2224 (GOVERNOR'S BILL) "An Act to Strengthen Public Safety by Improving Maine's Firearm Laws and Mental Health System"

Original Bill language can be found here.  

**The latest amendments from the Governor's office, as of this hour, can be found here. **

As previously outlined, as it stands now the Governor's Bill would allow a backdoor way to try and enforce Universal Background Checks. 

LD 2086: An Act to Amend the Law Governing the Disposition of Forfeited Firearms WITH Sponsor Amendment to Change the Definition of Machine Gun

The Machine Gun Amendment cannot be found on maine.gov, but it can be found here.  Bill language can be found here. 

Status of Ethics Complaint:

As we shared with you last week, we filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission regarding Senator Carney and other anti-gun legislator's meeting with a representative of the ATF behind closed doors. We submitted the complaint at approximately 12:50pm on Thursday, March 21st. At 5:05pm the same day we received notice, with Senator Carney carbon copied in the email, that the Commission had reviewed our complaint with their staff attorneys and found it did not fall within their jurisdiction and declined to move forward. We anticipated this result. 

Regardless of this declination, we have achieved an enormous amount of press and have placed Senator Carney on notice - we are paying attention.

We will continue as planned, having attained legal counsel, with Freedom of Access violation filings. We will also be looking at Federal Freedom of Information Act violations as well as violations of the Hatch Act. 

Legislators need to know that we are watching and that we are prepared to act when the law is violated as they try to infringe on our rights.

SAFER Course Back Online:

Due to some server issues the SAFER Maine: Statewide Access to Firearms Education & Resources website was down for about a week. 

The SAFER Course is just one example of how Gun Owners of Maine continues to demonstrate leadership in the area of Gun Safety. It continues to be used as a tool by many municipalities around the state, as well as the Maine State Police, for the issuance of concealed weapons permits. 

Your membership dues, raffle ticket purchases, and donations all allow this course to continue. Thank you! 

"Guns: United in Grief, Divided on Solutions"

We were invited by Mr. Tim Boyum, a journalist with Spectrum Cable News, to participate in a documentary about the fabric of gun ownership in Maine following the tragedies in Lewiston in October of last year. 

After a great deal of thought and looking into Mr. Boyum's previous work, we agreed that I (Laura) would interview with them, at A & G Shooting Supply in Fairfield, Maine. We know media inquiries can be risky, but not participating means we get no voice at all -and with an average viewership of 25 million, we wanted a voice. Others interviewed include a family member of a shooting victim and former Senator Mike Carpenter .

They had also asked one of our members and Gun Rights Activist Robert Duhaime to participate and give his perspective. Initially, they stated that if a GOME representative would be willing to speak that they didn't need two members. I immediately deferred to Robert, feeling strongly that his unique perspective and knowledge, paired with his knowledge of firearms, would be a worthy addition to their program.

They wound up interviewing us both. We have only seen the trailer, but are sharing with you the viewing opportunity of the full special. It is scheduled to air Wednesday, March 27th at 8:30pm. If you are a Spectrum Cable or Internet customer you can view it automatically for free. If not, it can be viewed later that evening or the following day on their website (also free) 

The Trailer can be viewed here (Twitter/X - no account needed to view) and here (Facebook).

- Laura

The Last Line of Defense: Why Guns are Necessary to Preserve Liberty Forum

Laura Whitcomb and Andee Reardon (GOME Board Member and State Director for Women for Gun Rights ), along with Maine State Representative Katrina Smith and NRA Firearms instructor Bruce Roscoe were invited to speak at the Kennebec County chapter of Turning Point USA's forum on gun rights.

Turning Point USA is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that targets young people, generally ages 14-22, and encourages them to participate in various causes, one of the main points being Second Amendment Advocacy. 

Because we encourage the next generation of Mainers to be involved in advocating for their gun rights, we thought we'd share this educational opportunity. While their main audience is young people, all are invited and welcome. See the image below for more details