Maine Question 3, 2016

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Maine Question 3, formally An Act to Require Background Checks for Gun Sales,^[1] was a citizen-initiated referendum question that has qualified for the Maine November 8, 2016 statewide ballot. It seeks to require a background check for virtually all gun transfers in Maine, with some exceptions. As the Maine Legislature and Governor Paul LePage declined to enact the proposal as written, it will appear on the ballot along with elections for President of the United States, Maine's two United States House seats, the Legislature, other statewide ballot questions, and various local elections.

With 589 of 589 Precincts Reporting - 100%, November 10, 2016 results: 392,701 NO (52%) and 362,156 YES (48%).^[2]

Background

Efforts to expand background checks of gun buyers have not succeeded at the Maine State House. In 2013, an effort to create a civil penalty of someone not conducting a background check on a buyer later found to not be allowed to possess a gun passed the Maine Legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Paul LePage, a strong gun rights supporter. An outright requirement to conduct background checks on gun buyers in private sales failed to pass the Legislature that same year.^[3][4]

On August 24, 2015, the group Maine Moms Demand Action (MMDA) filed paperwork with the Maine Secretary of State's office to launch a petition drive to require virtually all gun sales to have a background check of the buyer conducted by a licensed gun dealer. The proposal includes exceptions for transfers between family members, temporary loans of firearms while hunting or sport shooting, an emergency need for self-defense, and other limited exceptions.^[5][6]

MMDA submitted the 84,600 signatures they gathered on January 19, 2016.^[5][7] The Secretary of State's office announced on February 18 that 65,821 signatures were validated, well over the 61,123 required to place a question on the ballot.^[5] The question will appear on the ballot as "Do you want to require background checks prior to the sale or transfer of firearms between individuals not licensed as firearms dealers, with failure to do so punishable by law, and with some exceptions for family members, hunting, self-defense, lawful competitions, and shooting range activity?"^[8]

Campaign

Gun rights supporters have criticized the proposal. The Sportsman's Alliance of Maine's executive director, David Trahan, has stated that while background checks sound good in theory, they are difficult to implement and enforce, which is why there has been no national universal background check system. He also criticized the potential involvement of Michael Bloomberg and other out-of-state gun control groups spending large amounts of money in Maine.^[6] State Senator Eric Brakey criticized the effort as a back-door attempt to establish a gun registry.^[6]

Supporters officially launched their campaign on May 14, 2016, calling themselves Mainers for Responsible Gun Ownership. The group includes law enforcement officials, gun violence survivors, sportsmen, gun owners and gun violence prevention advocates. They state that background checks will close a loophole in existing gun laws which allow criminals, domestic abusers, and the mentally ill to obtain guns without a background check by not going to a licensed dealer. They also claim that states with expansive background checks experience lower rates of women being shot to death by their intimate partners, as well as lower rates of police officers being killed by handguns.^[6][9]

Governor Paul LePage, in expressing opposition to the referendum, has called it unconstitutional. Referendum supporters cite a 2007 decision written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stating that background checks are constitutional.^[10]

The Maine Warden Service, while not officially opposing the referendum, has expressed concern that its passage "could make criminals out of responsible firearm owners" and that it would be difficult to enforce.^[11]

Notable endorsements

Supporters

• Maine Moms Demand Action^[5]
• Sean Geagan, chief, Bucksport Police Department ^[6]
• Bucky Owen, former commissioner, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife^[12]
• Bill Vail, former commissioner, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife^[12]
• Michael Gahagan, chief, Caribou Police Department^[13]
• Bangor Daily News ^[14]
• Equality Maine^[15]
• Maine Chiefs of Police Association^[16]
• Ellsworth American^[17]
• Maine Women's Lobby^[18]
• MaineToday Media newspapers; Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel^[19]
• USA Today^[20]
• The Times Record, newspaper of Brunswick^[21]

Opponents

• Eric Brakey, Republican State Senator^[6]
• Darrell Crandall, Aroostook County Sheriff^[16]
• Barry Curtis, Washington County Sheriff^[16]
• Donna Dennison, Knox County Sheriff^[16]
• Wayne Gallant, Oxford County Sheriff^[16]
• John Goggin, Piscataquis County Sheriff^[16]
• Scott Kane, Hancock County Sheriff^[16]
• William King, York County Sheriff^[16]
• Dale Lancaster, Somerset County Sheriff^[16]
• Paul LePage, Governor of Maine^[10]
• Jeff McCabe, Majority Leader of the Maine House of Representatives^[22]
• Troy Morton, Penobscot County Sheriff^[16]
• Scott Nichols, Franklin County Sheriff^[16]
• Eric Samson, Androscoggin County Sheriff^[16]
• Jeffery Trafton, Waldo County Sheriff^[16]
• Gun Owners of Maine^[23]
• Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine^[6]
• National Rifle Association^[24]

Polling

References

External links

• Mainers for Responsible Gun Ownership, supporters of the referendum
• Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, a group opposed to the referendum

Elections and referendums in Maine
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