As soon as I saw the news last October, I slammed my work computer shut and reached out to my friends in Lewiston, the town where I attended college and worked for six years.
I got through to old coworkers who had locked all their doors. One mother of two in Lewiston replied: “I am sitting in the living room with a gun on my lap, as is my husband. [The shooting] is only a few miles away from us.”
Every Lewistonian I called, texted, or messaged — from my old boss, who is a retired Navy officer, to the mom above — had essentially the same thing to say: If this shooter decides to come here, it will be the last thing he does. They were all ready to defend their loved ones if they had to.
This past week, the Maine Legislature appeared poised to punish my friends and responsible gun owners across Maine for an unspeakable mass shooting that none of them committed.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee considered L.D. 2237, sponsored by Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, alongside other bills that aim to prevent another mass shooting from occurring. While the additional funding for mental health services and resources is a step in the right direction, multiple provisions place restrictions on commonly owned firearm parts and would criminalize not only my friends in Lewiston, but thousands of Mainers across the state who enjoy hunting and shooting competitions. Well-intentioned legislation is not free from consequences. Mainers should reject measures within these bills that violate their Second Amendment rights. …
Punishing the responsible gun owners in Lewiston that were ready to defend their loved ones due to the failure of the U.S. Army Reserve and local law enforcement to take the shooter’s weapons away from him is reprehensible. Lewistonians do not deserve to be made criminals overnight because legislators pack overzealous gun regulations into mental health packages that would easily enjoy wide bipartisan support.
— Roy Mathews in Opinion: Do Not Punish Mainers for Lewiston Shooting
4 Responses
While the additional funding for mental health services and resources is a step in the right direction…
It’s always a funding issue, isn’t it? “We could fix this if only we had more money.” It’s just like the border and education. More money will fix it.
It’s not like the gov doesn’t just print money at will. One wonders why anything is underfunded or why we even pay taxes if the money just comes from nowhere.
Taxes exist to punish people who can’t afford lobbyists.
Maybe if the government used those billions of $$$ being spent on trying to install a Marxist Socialist communist tyranny and punishing law abiding gun owners and infringing the 2A and other constitutional rights – maybe if they spent that on, ya know, mental health issues and locking up criminals and like..Gasp! securing the border and a whole lot more….