Forty-five Maine lawmakers are pressuring Cabela’s to stop selling AR-15s and other firearms Democrats describe as “assault rifles,” noting the October 25, 2023, Lewiston attacker bought a handgun from the retail giant.
Lawmakers did not explain what buying a handgun has to do with buying an AR-15, but they are pushing for Cabela’s to drop the sales of AR-15s anyway.
WGME noted that the push is being led by State Rep. Lori Gramlich (D), and that she the other 44 lawmakers sent a letter to Cabela’s which said, in part:
The horrific loss of life in Lewiston on Oct. 25, 2023 from such a legally purchased weapon is a wakeup call to all of us in Maine that a mass casualty shooting can happen here. We all need to do our part to make sure it does not happen again. Doing nothing is simply not acceptable. As one of the nation’s most successful outdoor enthusiast businesses, making this decision will help Maine heal.
You would set an example for other outdoor retailers in Maine to join you in this concrete, common-sense change – just as Walmart did when it banned these weapons for sale in all of their stores nationwide. LL Bean and Dick’s Sporting Goods have also demonstrated leadership by choosing not to sell military-style semi-automatic weapons.
The 45 lawmakers are also pressuring the Kittery Trading Post, which has been in business since the late 1930s, to stop selling “assault rifles.”
This is not the first time Maine lawmakers have leaned on gun stores in hopes of controlling inventory.
On Thursday, July 12, 2018–just months after Florida’s Parkland high school attack–NH1 noted that three “[Democrat] lawmakers wrote a letter to Kittery Trading Post, asking the store to restrict gun sales and to discontinue sales of what the lawmakers said are assault-style rifles.”
“The lawmakers referenced Parkland and said, “Your store to us has been a symbol of a good business that is involved in the community and the area in which it does business.”
The lawmakers intimated that boycotts would follow if Kittery Trading Post did not capitulate.
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
