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The Criminal Justice and Public Safety committee will be holding several hearings during the week of May 8th that will greatly impact your Second Amendment rights in Maine. Some of the proposals being heard are listed below. NRA members and Second Amendment supporters are strongly urged to attend these hearings and make their voices heard. For those who are unable to attend, please press the take action button below to contact committee members and make your voices heard!

Maine Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety,State House, Room 436,Public Hearing: May 8th at 9:00 A.M.

Submit Testimony

PRO GUN:

LD 624 strengthens existing law that expressly prohibits the State of Maine from creating any kind of gun-registry. This bill closes loopholes in existing law that could be exploited to create a quasi-gun registry in Maine.

ANTI-GUN:

LD 1011 would require law abiding gun owners who are victims of theft to report a stolen firearm within 72 hours of when the owner knew or should have known it was lost or stolen. Rather than deter fraudulent gun sales, this bill would turn victims of gun theft into criminals and make people whose guns have been lost or stolen hesitant to assist police for fear of prosecution.

LD 1340 would ban legal rapid-fire modification devices that are already commonly owned and in use by Mainers. These devices include but are not limited to bump stocks and binary triggers that are used in a wide array of legal activities including competitive and recreational shooting. Possession of such devices would result in a Class D crime.

Maine Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety,State House, Room 436,Public Hearing: May 9th at 1:00 P.M.

Submit Testimony

PRO GUN:

LD 1560 strengthens Maines Stand Your Ground Law by removing the duty of the victim to retreat or comply with the criminals demands. Mainers should not be required to comply with or hide from criminals to protect themselves. This bill would empower and protect law-abiding citizens.

Again, please contact members and urge them to oppose all anti-gun measures and support all measures that protect your Second Amendment rights.

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Maine: Several Critical Gun Bills Being Heard Next Week - NRA ILA

Lois Thielen, Times Writers Group| St. Cloud Times

One day last month, a young man near Long Prairie was out in his yard working on his vehicle. His dog, Waylon, was stretched out on the grass along the driveway nearby. Suddenly Waylon's owner heard multiple gun shots; his dog had been shot. His owner got Waylon to the local veterinarian but hisdog died there soon after.

It happened only 10 miles from our farm.

The reports of seemingly senseless gun violence directed at people just going about their business are constant. Here's three from last month, about the time Waylon was shot:

*On April 12, a 59-year-old Illinois man was fatally shot by his 79-yeear-old neighbor while using a leaf blower in his own yard.

*On April 13, a 16-year-old honor student was shot by an 84-year-old man after the boy rang his doorbell but had picked the wrong house while picking up his brothers from a friend's house.

*On April 18, two Texas cheerleaders were shot by a 25-year-old man after one of them mistakenly tried to get in the wrong car after a late night practice.

There is something seriously wrong with a country when the response to every mistake, every misunderstanding, every perceived slight, is to pull out a gun and start shooting.

There seems to be an endless number of firearms, a lot of angry, scared or mentally disturbed people and no restrictions whatsoever on what these angry, scared and mentally disturbed people can do with their vast caches of weapons.

The sheer amount of weaponry is unlike any developed country in the world. As a March 13, 2023, article by Dr. Michael Kryzanek in a Bridgewater State University blog entitled "Guns, violence and the Second Amendment " reports, "...the United States is unique in the world when it comes to gun culture and a failure to take action to regulate gun ownership...the United States has five percent of the world's population and 46 percent of the world's privately owned weapons."

Other first-tier nations, including Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, all have strict gun laws, that place limits on ownership, require training with firearms, prohibit assault rifles and require detailed background checks of gun buyers. The number of gun-related deaths in these countries is extremely low, Kryzanek concludes.

Our country's attitudesabout guns perplex other developed countries. "People in these countries cannot fathom why the United States permits such lax laws and how the American people and particularly American political leaders accept the tragic loss of life," Kryzanek said.

But any discussion of curbing gun violence immediately segues into how this would infringe upon gun owners' rights under the Second Amendment. Just for the record, here is the Second Amendment: "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the securing of a Free State, the rights of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Keep in mind this amendment was ratified Dec. 15, 1791, when the weapon of choice was a musket, which took four minutes to load, fired one shot at a time and was wildly inaccurate, a far cry from today's assault weapons.

Also remember the government wanted its citizens to own weapons was to enable the U. S. army of the time to have weapons as the government at that time could not afford to buy weapons for its soldiers.

Unfortunately, the Second Amendment has not been updated in these approximately 230 years to reflect modern weaponry, or placed any kind of limit on how many and what kind of weapons citizens can own.

So every day we hear of another American citizen being attacked by a gun-toting opponent or another mass shooting at a school, church or shopping mall. It's hard to feel safe in a public place or large-scale event such as a concert, county fair or sporting event. It's hard hearing our children worry about a school shooting possibly happening at their school. It's hard wondering if we'll be shot for approaching the wrong car in the parking lot or grabbing the wrong shopping cart at the supermarket.

We don't know what it's going to take to fix this country's gun sickness. All we know is that something needs to be done.

This is the opinion of Times Writers Group member Lois Thielen, a dairy farmer who lives near Grey Eagle. Her column is published the first Sunday of the month.

Continue reading here:
What's to be done about our country's gun sickness? - SC Times

Marcia Meoli| Community Columnist

The United States Supreme Court, prompted by zealous and short-sighted litigants, is now keeping our country from solving important problems of our day. It is doing this in a way thatinterfereswith the functioning of the other branches of government.

My recent thoughts on this started with a podcast I heard on NPR's "Fresh Air" from April 6. There, Eric Lipton, from the New York Times, discussed his series on the expansion of online betting in our country.A short time ago, it was illegal to gamble on sports in most places in the U.S. Now, sports and other gambling is happening virtually everywhere and on anything. Lipton traced this change to the lawsuit filed by the state of New Jersey claiming it was unconstitutional to allow one state like Nevada to have sports betting, and to prohibit this in other states.InMurphy v. NCAA, the Supreme Court held that a 1992 law prohibiting state-sanctioned sports gambling was unconstitutional under the 10thAmendment because one clause in that law commandeered power from the states. Instead of invalidating the one clause, the court invalidated the entire statute.

This left us without a national prohibition of gambling.After that, states passed laws allowing all kinds of gambling, including on sports.After Michigan passed such a law, I have seen bankruptcies by people caught up in this.These people turn over their bank accounts to pay for gambling on their phones.Their bank statements are incredible: pages and pages of entries for FANDUEL and other gambling operations.Reviewing this with the debtors, these people seem to be in a state of shock, not really understanding how they got into this situation but knowing that they were not able to get control of it until it was too late.In theMurphycase, the court seemed to understand that this could happen in the last paragraphs of its opinion, but went forward anyway because of its reading of the 10thAmendment and that errant clause in the statute.

This is becoming a pattern.The Roberts court has reviewed a number of statutes and found constitutional problems with them, overruling these statutes and causing upheaval and problems sought to be solved by elected legislators or other leaders.This includes:

Second Amendment decisions: Heller, McDonald and Bruen.Hellerwas decided in 2008, reversing the full history of interpretation of the Second Amendment, and holding that the amendment provides an individual right to bear arms, rather than a right tied to membership in a militia.The court attempted to temper the decision by stating that the right is not unlimited. But subsequent decisions of the court cast doubt on whether the court will ever find a limitation on guns acceptable.In theMcDonaldcase, the court extended individual liberty in cases involving states.In 2022, the court held in theBruencase that courts reviewing guns law should consider not the public good, but the "historical tradition of firearm regulation" (whatever that means!).

Citizens United:In 2010, the court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.It overruled a campaign finance law passed by a bi-partisan Congress.The court attempted to temper the decision by stating that it did not believe in the likelihood of corruption or the appearance of corruption in elections.

Shelby County v. Holder: In 2013, the court overruled portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed and renewed for decades to deal with discrimination in voting, stating that the act was old and no longer responsive to current needs.The court attempted to temper the decision by stating that the country has changed with respect to racial discrimination.

We now face the prospect that this court will eviscerate the FDC in its ultimate ruling on an abortion drug.

The majority members of this court think that they know better for the country than anyone else, including Congress, the president, the majority of voters and previous Supreme Courts, given its growing record of overruling long-standing precedent.Some of these justices stated under oath that they respected precedent during their confirmation hearings.Since they joined the court, they have shown no respect for precedent at all.

We should not need to pass constitutional amendments to solve problems in this country.This court is devolving into yet another hyper-partisan participant in the dysfunction of our national political system.

Community Columnist Marcia Meoli is a Holland attorney and resident. Contact her at Meolimarcia@gmail.com.

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Marcia Meoli: Supreme Court just adding fuel to the partisan fire - HollandSentinel.com

Open hypocrisy

Dear editor:

The new governor has censored books, free inquiry, classroom discussions, acknowledgment of sexual gender, sexual orientation and complete history of Black culture.

Her voucher system in education LEARNS will result in siphoning thousands of public dollars from Arkansas public schools to pay for private and religious education where "indoctrination is common" when she earlier declared that "Schools must educate, not indoctrinate." This suggests open hypocrisy! And readers should remember that private and religious schools are not required to accept "all students." Add to these facts that the cost of this new system is projected to be $343 million by its second year. How does such cost affect small public schools already producing quality education? Many will likely be forced to close when about $7,000 per transfer student will go to the private or religious school rather than to the public one.

Governor Sanders' own ideas of appropriate religious indoctrination as well as "Christian Nationalism" (that means making our government not secular but religious) are being heavily injected into this LEARNS system.

Where is the separation of church and state in this new education scheme? Where and how is our national Constitution being followed? Have the readers who thought this new thing sounds good due to the raise in salaries it brings considered how many million dollars the various lawsuits are going to cost, lawsuits already being organized? That is our public tax money!

The governor is simply building her base of ultra-right folk in preparation for her run in the future for president of our USA! She makes it all sound great and thousands of Arkansas voters have not considered the full ramifications of LEARNS! Woe to public education in our state if this program is fully implemented, and woe to the average taxpayer's wallet!

Dr. John W. "Doc" Crawford

Arkadelphia/Hot Springs

'Borrowed' time

Dear editor:

As of December 2022, the Social Security Trust Fund has asset reserves of $2.8 trillion dollars. This is an increase from $47 billion dollars at the end of 1986.

At the same time, the U.S. government has "borrowed" more than $2.8 trillion dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund and pays to the fund an average interest rate of only 1.5%. The loan is backed by special non-traded Treasury securities which represent about 9% of the total U.S. debt of about $31.1 trillion dollars.

Social Security and Medicare receive revenues from a separate tax paid by wage earners and their employers. They add nothing to the federal debt.

When lawmakers say that Social Security benefits and Medicare need to be cut to balance the federal budget, they are lying. What lawmakers should do is increase the interest rate paid and begin the process of repaying this debt.

Social Security and Medicare are not entitlement programs. They consist of money paid by wage earners and that money belongs to "We The People."

John Grillo

Hot Springs

A right to be free of fear

Dear editor:

Twenty-eight percent of our population has been impacted by guns; my family included. Gun rights, accelerated with Reagan and Trump, made gun ownership legal for the mentally ill. Politicians have been buying votes on the blood, rights and lives of the innocent for 63 years. Supported by the NRA, they will not change and are complicit and compliant with their wishes at the expense of the innocent.

Reagan Republicans said if we deregulated guns and let anyone buy and carry as many as they wanted, wherever they wanted, it would clean up crime and put the fear of God in the politicians. "An armed society is a polite society," a bumper sticker said during Reagan's time. The NRA promoted the lie that our Founders put the Second Amendment into the Constitution so "patriots" could kill politicians. Five Republicans on the Supreme Court twisted the law and lied about history to make guns more widely available.

We do not have a "polite" society nor politicians that listen. People are killing children and not politicians. Our gun carnage is unequal anywhere in the civilized world. We have 12 million hunters, but many of the 400 million guns are sold to people with the intent to use for crime and thoughts of overthrowing the government. People have a right to be free from the fear of guns. The Second Amendment needs amending and politicians refusing reasonable constraints voted out.

Jerry Davis

Hot Springs

Have hope

Dear editor:

The harder life gets, the more crucial hope is.

Throughout tough times, we are best to look ahead. This is where hope is. What we do today can help or hurt our tomorrows.

Be aware of what is going on and vote. Voting did not come easy for many people decades ago. As late as 1954, Indians -- Native Americans -- were kept from voting in some states.

Today, Americans are up against the diseases, the higher prices on food, gas, utilities, etc. The natural disasters are never-ending and we face the threat of a nuclear World War III.

So, in a word, hope, for a better future. Listen to survivors of war, of the Great Depression, and of all disasters. We must all have hope through the hard times and remember all of the good and simple things in your life.

I believe it will get better.

I have hope.

Paula Woodman

Hot Springs

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Letters to the editor - Hot Springs Sentinel

I treat children rather than adults, because kids dont generally bring their maladies upon themselves. When they do cause their own injuries, its through failure to fly or some other age-appropriate misjudgment. Even the teens who injure themselves through drugs, (alcohol), reckless driving or TikToK challenges all get a pass the first time or two. I laugh, tease and hopefully instill some insight during that momentary opportunity for reflection that a recoverable injury offers. Kids offer hope through their smiles, jokes, laughter, growth, resilience and healing power. But dead is dead.

A critically injured child survived a severe car crash, a prolonged extraction and transport and the emergency department where we placed multiple IVs, a breathing tube, a chest tube (and performed) a blood transfusion and CT exams. She had life-threatening injuries to her brain, lungs, heart, liver, spleen and intestines. She came to the emergency department pale and blue, but through our interventions she was heading to the operating room, pink and perfused with a chance of survival.

Leaving her resuscitation, I heard the news of another school shooting. Three kids dead. No opportunity to help. Dead. Not alive. No hope, no laughter, no smiles. Dead.

Sometimes children die in the emergency department. Typically they arrive dead or dying and in spite of our interventions do not recover. Telling parents this heart-wrenching news is painful, poignant and best done when they are present during the resuscitation. We explain that the nurses, docs and paramedics in the room are breathing for the child and pumping the blood for them, as their loved ones body can no longer perform these basic functions. But when we stop, in spite of everything weve done, their child will likely die. We stop, and this child dies with parents present holding them, giving love and respect for a life cut short.

Dead. Shot to death. No parent, no family, no tears. No nurses or doctors giving CPR, putting in breathing tubes or chest tubes, no CTs, no miraculous saves is the emergency room, operating room or pediatric ICU. Dead. Sprawled on cheap linoleum school floors. Mangled brains, chests and abdomens. Shredded by military assault weapons. Dead. Alone.

When are adults going to take responsibility for our kids being slaughtered? Why does the Second Amendment trump our childrens right to live? Guns dont kill people, they just give humans with poor impulse control a really easy way to ruin everyone elses life. We need more good people with guns. No, we dont. Trained police have a difficult time intervening, and a group of well-intentioned amateurs shooting up the scene doesnt increase anyones safety. Its simple math.

If you have weapons you are more likely to use them to kill yourself, your loved ones or someone elses loved ones. Its not that hard; take something that can deliver unbelievable harm and misery, and get it off our streets and out of our homes. Open carry, assault weapons, ginormous magazines all weaponize the petty fears of an insecure minority who have no right to kill our children. We must refuse this framed as a Second Amendment debate and remember that life, liberty and pursuit of happiness stops when you are dead. Its better to be woke than asleep at the wheel, impaired at the trigger, or dead.

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Adults need to take the responsibility for child slaughter - Albuquerque Journal