EDITORIAL: Reject voting restrictions and give families more options to stop gun violence

By The Bangor Daily News Editorial Board

Maine has what is known as a yellow flag law, the only one in the country. The law, the result of bipartisan negotiations and the involvement of diverse groups, allows law enforcement to initiate the process of temporarily removing firearms from people who are believed to be a danger to themselves or others. The law requires an assessment by a medical professional to make such a determination.

Although it was rarely used before, the law has been effectively used more than 1,000 times since the horrifying 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, which left 18 people dead and shattered many lives. It is often used to stop suicide attempts.

While that law has become more effective, there are times when families and loved ones feel that law enforcement is too slow to act. That was clearly the case with the Lewiston shooter, as an independent investigation into the shooting found, concluding that law enforcement had “sufficient probable cause” to use the state’s yellow flag law to disarm the shooter long before his rampage in Lewiston. The yellow flag law was not used. Several law enforcement officials told the Lewiston commission that the yellow flag law was “cumbersome, inefficient, and unduly restrictive,” according to the group’s report.

Continue reading here at the Bangor Daily News.