An unusual group of lawmakers is backing this Maine gun proposal

By Billy Kobin, Bangor Daily News Staff

An unusual mix of gun control proponents and opponents are backing a proposal to protect people who agree to hold onto firearms for others from legal liability.

Rep. Vicki Doudera, D-Camden, introduced Tuesday a bill that would provide immunity for those who hold weapons for someone else, such as a person who is having thoughts of suicide. It would make the holder immune from litigation for returning the gun at the end of the agreement unless the holder engages in illegal conduct while possessing the gun.

The proposal has already picked up support from members who have not seen eye to eye on other gun-related bills, particularly the array of measures that Democratic legislators introduced after Maine’s deadliest-ever mass shooting in 2023 that left 18 dead and 13 injured in Lewiston. 

Among the cosponsors are Rep. Amy Arata, R-New Gloucester, Sen. Joe Martin, R-Rumford, and Rep. Jim White, R-Guilford, who is a gunsmith. Two of Doudera’s fellow Democrats, Rep. Tavis Hasenfus of Readfield and Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross of Portland, are also on the bill.

Doudera included a similar liability provision in her measure last year that would have allowed Mainers to voluntarily add their names to a “do-not-sell” list for firearms. That proposal passed each chamber before Doudera held it so she could study which agency would handle the list. She said she will reintroduce the do-not-sell list bill later this year and wanted to separate it from the firearm hold agreement measure to simplify each proposal.

Doudera noted numerous situations where gun owners seek firearm hold agreements, not only for suicide prevention but also to temporarily remove weapons if they are showing their home to potential buyers, if young kids are visiting or if renters are staying in their house. She said she spoke with a Lewiston gun shop owner who likes the idea.

“Gun violence is such a complicated, kind of many-tentacled thing, that going at it from many different directions, I think, is a good way to go,” Doudera said in a Tuesday interview.

Arata, one of the Republican cosponsors, said she is supporting it “to give people the option of having a trusted person hold their firearms if they don’t trust themselves.”

“Last year a young man in my neighborhood committed suicide with a firearm, and I hope that this bill will help to prevent similar future tragedies,” Arata said via email.

Doudera’s bill has not yet received a public hearing that may reveal how the administration of Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who has opposed several past gun control measures, is viewing it. Earlier this year, she spoke out against a “red flag” law that Mainers will vote on in November.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed several gun control measures last year in response to an Army reservist’s October 2023 rampage at a Lewiston bowling alley and bar, such as tweaks to Maine’s “yellow flag” law, a background check expansion and new 72-hour waiting periods for gun purchases.

Mills vetoed a ban on bump stocks or “rapid-fire devices,” with Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, reintroducing that this year. Carney is also cosponsoring a bill from Rep. Matthew Beck, D-South Portland, to criminalize the possession of guns with more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Other Democratic bills would ban “ghost guns” and promote safe storage.

Mills let the 72-hour waiting period law take effect without her signature, but a federal judge has since paused it amid a lawsuit from White and others who argue it violates the Second Amendment. Doudera said she hopes her legislation in the meantime proves there are areas of bipartisanship surrounding guns and lowering Maine’s rates of suicide and gun violence.

“Gun safety can be so polarizing,” Doudera said. “But yet, it really doesn’t have to be because I know there are many responsible gun owners who are practicing gun safety all the time.”