Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) is pushing legislation to make it easier for gun owners in the state to have their firearms confiscated.
Her push is being done in response to the October 25, 2023, Lewiston shootings, in which Robert Card killed 18 people.
Maine already has a yellow flag law, which allows police to secure a judge’s order to confiscate firearms from a gun owner believed to be a threat to himself or others. On July 1, 2022, Maine Public Radio focused on Maine’s yellow flag law, suggesting it “could be a model for gun control” and noting the law had been used 22 times to take away guns during the previous two years.
But law enforcement was alerted to Card prior to the attack by Card’s own family, but did not act to seize his guns.
Breitbart News reported the family contacted police because they were increasingly concerned with Card’s mental situation. Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry indicated Card’s family contacted his office on May 3, 2023.
Maine Governor Janet Mills speaks at Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce monthly business forum, Eggs and Issues, on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Derek Davis/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
He said the family believed Card’s mental state had begun a downward spiral in January 2023 and “they were worried about his well-being and noting his access to guns.”
Moreover, FOX News guest Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector, noted that Robert Card, the person of interest in the Maine shootings, had allegedly threatened to attack a military base.
Although questions still exist as to why law enforcement did not act in light of the state’s yellow flag law, KGME reported that Gov. Mills wants to make changes to law so as to allow police to take gun owners into custody easier. Her efforts are focused, in part, on allowing a “third party” reference suffice for the purposes of taking a gun owner into custody.
Gov. Mills’ official website also makes clear that purpose of taking gun owners into custody is to then have law enforcement sweep the gun owner’s property and “remove their weapons.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a pro-staffer for Pulsar Night Vision. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
