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The Maine background check referendum is a citizen-initiated referendum question that has qualified for the Maine November 8, 2016 statewide ballot. It seeks to require a background check for virtually all gun transfers in Maine, with some exceptions. As the Maine Legislature and Governor Paul LePage declined to enact the proposal as written, it will appear on the ballot along with elections for President of the United States, Maine's two U.S. House seats, the Legislature, other statewide ballot questions, and various local elections.
Background
Efforts to expand background checks of gun buyers have not succeeded at the Maine State House. In 2013, an effort to create a civil penalty of someone not conducting a background check on a buyer later found to not be allowed to possess a gun passed the Maine Legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Paul LePage, a strong gun rights supporter. An outright requirement to conduct background checks on gun buyers in private sales failed to pass the Legislature that same year.[1][2]
On August 24, 2015, the group Maine Moms Demand Action (MMDA) filed paperwork with the Maine Secretary of State's office to launch a petition drive to require virtually all gun sales to have a background check of the buyer conducted by a licensed gun dealer. The proposal includes exceptions for transfers between family members, temporary loans of firearms while hunting or sport shooting, an emergency need for self-defense, and other limited exceptions.[3][4]
MMDA submitted the 84,600 signatures they gathered on January 19, 2016.[3][5] The Secretary of State's office announced on February 18 that 65,821 signatures were validated, well over the 61,123 required to place a question on the ballot.[3]
Campaign
Gun rights supporters have criticized the proposal. The Sportsman's Alliance of Maine's executive director, David Trahan, has stated that while background checks sound good in theory, they are difficult to implement and enforce, which is why there has been no national universal background check system. He also criticized the potential involvement of Michael Bloomberg and other out-of-state gun control groups spending large amounts of money in Maine.[4] State Senator Eric Brakey criticized the effort as a back-door attempt to establish a gun registry.[4]
Supporters state that background checks will close a loophole in existing gun laws which allow criminals, domestic abusers, and the mentally ill to obtain guns without a background check by not going to a licensed dealer. They also claim that states with expansive background checks experience lower rates of women being shot to death by their intimate partners.[4]
Notable endorsements
Supporters
- Maine Moms Demand Action[3]
- Sean Geagan, chief, Bucksport Police Department [4]
- Bucky Owen, former commissioner, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife[6]
- Bill Vail, former commissioner, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife[6]
- Michael Gahagan, chief, Caribou Police Department[7]
Opponents
References
External links
