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Maine’s governor rolled out laws on Wednesday she mentioned will stop harmful folks from possessing weapons and strengthen mental health providers to assist stop future tragedies just like the Lewiston mass shooting that shook the state.
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, known as for the modifications in January in a speech that got here three months after an Army reservist killed 18 folks within the worst mass shooting within the historical past of the state. The reservist had a historical past of mental sickness and erratic conduct earlier than the shootings.
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Mills mentioned there’s broad help for the sort of modifications in her proposals, which might additionally set up a violence-prevention program on the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The proposals would wish to seek out help in a state with the next proportion of gun possession than most of the Northeast.
“They are practical, common-sense measures that are Maine-made and true to our culture and our longstanding traditions while meeting today’s needs. They represent meaningful progress, without trampling on anybody’s rights, and they will better protect public safety,” Mills mentioned.
One of Mills’ proposals would strengthen the state’s excessive threat safety order legislation. Some legislation enforcement personnel have mentioned the state’s yellow flag legislation made it troublesome to take away shooter Robert Card’s weapons regardless of clear warning indicators. Mills mentioned her change would enable legislation enforcement to hunt a protecting custody warrant to take a harmful particular person into custody to take away weapons.
Gov. Janet Mills speaks throughout a information convention within the aftermath of a mass shooting, in Lewiston, Maine, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. Gov. Mills, a Democrat, rolled out laws on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, she mentioned will stop harmful folks from possessing weapons and strengthening mental health providers to assist stop future tragedies just like the Lewiston mass shooting that shook the state. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Another proposal would lengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to marketed, non-public gross sales of firearms. Still one other would incentivize the checks for unadvertised, non-public gross sales.
The proposals would additionally set up a statewide community of disaster receiving facilities in order that an individual struggling a mental health disaster may get care swiftly, Mills mentioned.
The governor’s supplemental funds consists of different proposals geared at disaster response and mental health. It additionally proposes to create a Maine mass violence care fund with $5 million to cowl bodily and mental health bills related to a mass violence occasion and never coated by insurance coverage.
“Our community’s difficult healing process will continue long into the future, and this will provide folks with the support they need when they need it,” mentioned Democratic Rep. Kristen Cloutier of Lewiston.
Card dedicated the shootings at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston on Oct. 25. He was later discovered useless of a self-inflicted gunshot.
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Card had been well-known to legislation enforcement for months earlier than the shootings, and a fellow reservist instructed an Army superior that Card was going to “snap and do a mass shooting.”
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