Move to ban guns in public facilities floated tonight
City Councilor Dan Skolnik wants state lawmakers to expand gun control to public facilities such as city halls and gathering places like the Portland Exposition Center, Fitzpatrick Stadium and the Cumberland County Civic Center.
At the city's regular Public Safety Committee meeting today (Tuesday), Skolnik and other supporters of a city resolution seeking gun bans in these public venues will try to launch a draft resolution that the city council could take to the legislature.
Actually, two public meetings are planned: the one today at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall and one in October (tentatively the second Tuesday in October), Skolnik said Monday. Public comment will be the heart of the meetings, he added.
"Probably between the two meetings we'll try to put together a resolution that very carefully outlines a solution for public facilities that we think is constitutional, and then we'll leave it to the legislature to decide," Skolnik, who chairs the public safety committee, said.
In April, Skolnik mounted a counter-protest on the Back Cove to a local rally for "open carry," a nationwide movement that urges gun owners to openly wear guns in public where legal. "No good can come of walking around displaying an openly-loaded weapon," Skolnik said at the time of the dueling protests.
Under Maine state law, it's legal to carry loaded guns in public, but only if they are in plain sight. If someone wants to conceal a firearm, state law requires that they take out a permit for a concealed weapon. There are few prohibitions on where people can carry a gun, although current law bans them from courthouses, jails, school grounds and bars, according to city attorney Gary Wood.
Skolnik says there should be "at least that level of regulation" for people wishing to openly carry their guns.
But the issue of gun control in Portland largely left the public eye after April's high-profile rallies.
Asked why is he was pursuing legislative restrictions now, Skolnik said, "I was motivated by the understanding that there was some common ground that certain people in the legislature were nodding toward, and I thought, 'OK, I'll give it a try.'"
"I think there is a good chance that something can pass," said William Harwood, a gun control advocate who offered information to the public safety committee regarding past attempts to prohibit guns in certain facilities. "I think if the MMA (Maine Municipal Association) were to take this on and lend their support to it as a matter of local control over which they (local municipalities) should have local jurisdiction it would have a much stronger chance of passing."
"Peripheral issues" such as what to do about somebody driving into a city hall parking lot with a hunting rifle in their vehicle needed to be worked out during past debates, Harwood said.
"You're never quite sure when the right time is, but there has been support for this in the past," he said.
State and federal law preempts local authority to regulate firearms, Wood wrote in an Aug. 10 memo to the public safety committee.
"That is why this limited approach to new state legislation makes sense," Wood wrote. "Portland can call on the Legislature to expand its own laws in a way that conforms with the right to bear arms."
Paul Mattson, a National Rifle Association certified instructor and range safety officer, said he doesn't expect the proposal to escape the public safety committee.
"I have a good feeling it's going to be shot down tomorrow night," he predicted Monday. "The legislators already voted this down four times prior. It's been voted down many times."
The Maine State Constitution reads: "Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned."
"It's contrary to the Maine State Constitution, Article 1, Section 16," Mattson said of the resolution, noting that the state constitution also prohibits cities from administering state law.
The National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action, was more blunt, writing in an email alert: "This legislation would be the first step in an outright attack on your concealed carry rights and the measure also defies Maine’s Constitution which states, 'Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned.'"
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