Maine Scores a F — HURRAY!!
A story circulating in the local news and media this weekend reports the Giffords Law Center has given the State of Maine, my new forever home, a score of F in its 2021 Annual Gun Law Scorecard. You know what, that’s a damn good thing and I couldn’t be prouder.
For those of you who don’t know them, the Giffords Law Center, formerly known as the Legal Community Against Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, is an ultra-left-wing activist and legal support center for gun control. Under the guise of “gun safety”, Giffords is known for assisting states and municipalities create highly restrictive gun control laws. They also provide pro bono legal services, so government entities have nothing to lose by implementing ever tighter gun control regulation. Chances are if your state or community is trying to implement some form of gun control, the Giffords Law Center’s fingerprints are all over it.
So why did Maine score so badly?
Giffords says of the “The State Of Gun Violence In Maine”: “Maine’s lack of basic gun safety laws puts its residents at grave risk, and lawmakers owe it to their communities to stand up to this crisis.” “Maine passed a reckless permitless carry law in 2015 that allows residents to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public without a permit or background check.”
One would think that with a score of F, Maine would be one of the most crime ridden, violent states in the country. In reality, the exact opposite is true. Maine has always been an extremely safe state, routinely ranked as # 1, 2 or 3 with New Hampshire and Vermont. It’s important to note that New Hampshire and (until recently) Vermont also have the same ‘dangerous’ lack of gun control laws.
Giffords makes a big deal of Maine’s 2015 decision to allow a “reckless permitless carry law in 2015”. As they always do when any state or institution proposes Constitutional / permitless carry, Giffords flooded the public with messages that predicted it would be the wild, wild west in Maine and people would be settling all their disputes in the streets with guns. Of course, EACH and EVERY time Constitutional / permitless carry is implemented, the opposite occurs. Crime goes down, as it did in Maine, placing the state firmly as #1 on the safest list.
What does Giffords want Maine to implement?
Universal background checks
Gun owner licensing
Extreme risk protection orders
Most domestic violence gun laws
Assault weapon restrictions
Large capacity magazine ban
Waiting periods
Concealed carry permit
Open carry regulations
Giffords also notes “More than 88% of gun deaths in Maine are suicides, and nearly 54% of all suicide deaths in Maine involve firearms.”
To this I respond as I did in my September 12, 2016, article, “Gun Control vs. Suicide Prevention”, suicide is NOT gun violence.
The gun control lobby has forever included suicide numbers in their counts of “gun violence victims”. They’ve also infamously included mass shooting perpetrators who took their own life after killing others or were lawfully killed by law enforcement. Why wouldn’t they, it increases the numbers. However, I don’t see an individual taking their own life and an act of violence towards another person — by any means — as being the same thing. One is done voluntarily to oneself; the other is done involuntary to another.
In case you’re curious who scores the best on Giffords Scorecard? California (A) and New Jersey (A) with Connecticut (A-) Illinois (A-) New York (A-), Maryland (A-), Massachusetts (A-) and Hawaii (A-) following closely behind.
Perhaps those draconian gun control laws the Giffords Law Center are pushing are contrary to what is needed for actual safety. Yes, Giffords and the rest of the gun control zealots point to evidence from research (funded and directed by gun control advocates) that says, “gun laws save lives”. At the same time, they ignore the skyrocketing violent crime rates in the most gun-controlled states and cities. Perhaps allowing law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for their own protection and the protection of their families is the deterrent the rest of the country should be modeling. It seems like Maine is the state doing things right.
Note: The official Maine motto is Dirigo, Latin for “I direct” or “I lead”. I’d say it’s time for those gun control states to start following Maine’s lead.
A final thought for you to ponder. You want to go someplace safe with your family. Are you going to choose A ranked California or New Jersey, or F ranked Maine?
Bob
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