I usually pay little attention to the propaganda that I receive on my email. Most of it is unreliable information and not worth a second look. So I must admit, when the Giffords Law Center gun control organization sent me an email announcing they had given the state of Maine a grade of “F” for so-called “gun violence” I was skeptical.
A little research and I found, in Maine, violent crimes account for just 8% of total crimes, versus 15% nationwide. Maine has the lowest total violent crime rate of all states; in addition, crime in Maine has declined nine years in a row.
Giffords made this claim by adding Maine’s suicide by firearms to the homicide by firearms (average of 10 per year) to inflate the numbers. Really, truth is, Maine is the safest state in the nation to live. They have perverted the word violence to include suicide and to mean an act of violence against one self.
Absent the politics of gun control, reducing suicides in Maine is a serious crisis that deserves our laser focus. I gave Giffords, and others, a chance to work with me to this end. On Jan. 28, 2019, I wrote a column in the Kennebec Journal titled, “Gun debate should be more about safety,” in which I made this statement, “Instead of fighting, perhaps it is time to tone down the rhetoric and look at real gun safety ideas that we all might agree on.”
I went on with this challenge to the gun control community: “I will offer a number of gun safety ideas that, when combined, would save lives, I hope people will read these columns for what they are — a sincere attempt to make our communities safer and start the gun safety debate down a more productive path.”
My column was an obvious attempt to reach out to the so-called, “gun safety” community and say: I will work with you in good faith, if you are willing to do the same. So, what was the answer? Cricket, cricket, cricket!
In the absence of a response, I approached the Mills administration and key legislators and made a similar offer. This time, the answer was, “What do you have in mind?”
What came next was a series of bills I submitted with bipartisan and gubernatorial support. The first bill introduced and sponsored by Rep. Patrick Corey, R-Windham, was to create the School Safety Center at the Department of Education. I started the effort to establish the center as a legislator and finished the job as SAM director. The center is designed to look at all elements of security in Maine schools as well as the core issues that in many cases lead to tragedies like, teen suicide. When you visit the center’s website, they list a series of recommendations for school administrators, of which this is the first: do a “Comprehensive School Safety Assessment”. Translation, review security at your school and make changes as necessary. The center lists nine more school security and youth safety recommendations.
The next piece of legislation was to create a sales tax exemption for gun safes and other safe storage devices. That bill, also written by my organization and sponsored by Rep. Corey, was passed unanimously by the Legislature, but failed to receive priority funding in the Legislature’s Appropriation Committee. Undeterred, we introduced it again the next year it was finally enacted and funded.
The third bill was legislation introduced by Sen. Lisa Keim, R-Oxford, that strengthened Maine’s protective custody statute designed to protect individuals in a mental health crisis. The reforms created a more responsive system that allowed the courts, when supported by a medical professional, to temporarily restrict an individual’s access to dangerous weapons. Unlike the more controversial “Red Flag” passed in other states, the reforms had the highest levels of due process and personal liberty protections the law could provide.
The last law, L.D. 1861, An Act to Establish the Safe Homes Program, sponsored by Sen. Susan Deschambault, D-Biddeford, designated September as Safe Homes month, directed the Department of Public Safety to create an educational program to promote the safe storage of dangerous weapons and prescription drugs, and, finally, created grants for at-risk groups, like veterans, childcare facilities, and other segments of the population where at-risk individuals may come in contact with dangerous weapons.
We also worked with Congressmen Jared Golden to introduce a companion bill in Congress to help fund these types of initiatives across the country.
What do all of these programs have in common? They were supported overwhelmingly by the Legislature, and they address responsible approaches to reducing suicide, accidental injury and building safe schools.
The governor, the firearm community, legislators and others that worked on these efforts deserve an A-plus for their work, and the Giffords organization deserves a an “F” for not doing their homework.
David Trahan of Waldoboro, a former state legislator, is executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of that organization.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
