Maine legislators ignore public and veto gun background checks law

Bangor Daily News. In doing so he made the clear choice to continue to make it easier for convicted criminals and domestic abusers to purchase guns. “LD 1240 would have changed no one’s right to buy, sell or own a gun. It would not even have mandated a background check for all gun sales. It only would have created a penalty (up to a $500 fine) for selling a gun to a convicted felon or other illegal buyer, and a misdemeanor for doing it more than once”, the report says. Maine gun owners are responsible and support sensible gun laws. Recent polling shows that 74 percent of National Rifle Association members support mandatory criminal background checks. But the NRA, which more immediately represents gun manufacturers than gun owners, clearly is more influential in Augusta than is public opinion. Republicans seem especially (and mysteriously) gullible when they are befriended by NRA lobbyists from Washington. No Republican Senator and only one Republican representative voted in favor of LD 1240. A January Pew poll also found that 85 percent of all respondents in favor of making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks, with comparable support from Republicans, Democrats and independents, Pew said. The margin of error for the entire sample was 2.9 percentage points. Add to this the FBI proposing rules to strengthen the gun background check process not too long ago and the current administration clearly pushing for a resolution for this issue, it seems counter intuitive that some legislators are still so adamant to not address the situation. It’s the next generation of society whose welfare is at stake here; any form of background screening process to protect our future and improve safety can only be a good thing. If this Maine incident is representative of the country as a whole, it seems that it will be a long road for gun control advocates.]]>