The Lewiston shooting rattled Maine like nothing before. It’s not hard to see why. That one atrocity darn near doubled the state’s total homicides from the year before. That’s going to have an impact on the psyche of a state.
Unfortunately, that damage resulted in a lot of gun control. While Maine was normally pretty pro-gun, the mass murder shook them so badly they abandoned all of that.
One of the measures passed was a 72-hour waiting period. This is, of course, stupid and wouldn’t have stopped the attack, but it was an opportunity for gun grabbers in the state to push for things they’ve always wanted and were denied.
So you can imagine how much it irks me when the AP runs a headline reading, “Prompted by mass shooting, 72-hour wait period and other new gun laws go into effect in Maine.”
With eleventh hour guidance from the state, Maine gun retailers on Friday began requiring a three-day wait period for gun purchases under one of the new safety laws adopted following the state’s deadliest mass shooting.
Maine joined a dozen other states with similar laws, requiring that buyers wait 72 hours to complete a purchase and retrieve a weapon. The law is among several gun-related bills adopted after an Army reservist killed 18 people and injured 13 others on Oct. 25, 2023, in Lewiston.
The new law wouldn’t have prevented the tragedy — the gunman bought the rifle legally months earlier — but Friday’s milestone was celebrated by gun safety advocates who believe it will prevent gun deaths by providing a cooling-off period for people intent on buying a gun to do harm to others or themselves.
“These new laws will certainly save lives, both here in Maine and throughout the nation,” said Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition.
They really won’t.
But I find it interesting that the AP admits it wouldn’t have prevented the tragedy, but still wrote a headline suggesting that the measure had anything at all to do with Lewiston.
Lewiston was a pretext. It was an opportunity for the anti-gunners who also knew that this wouldn’t have done a damn thing to stop the killer, but they passed it anyway. It wasn’t prompted by the shooting so much as merely justified by people who will latch onto any tragedy to advance their agenda.
I always find it fascinating that they treat us like the disturbed ones for not falling all over ourselves to forfeit our rights after something like Lewiston, even though none of us believe that would work–mostly because it won’t–yet they’ll use the bodies of the slain as a soapbox to advance their agenda like it’s nothing. They pretend to have been deeply disturbed by the events, but they never seem to focus on them.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not exactly moved by their behavior.
In the end, Maine isn’t safer. It’s actually less safe as people who need guns to protect themselves are left vulnerable waiting for a time period to pass before they can protect themselves.
But I’m sure the potential killers will wait 72 hours. You know how sporting criminals tend to be, right?
