The Maine Gun Safety Coalition is pushing to pass a new red flag gun law, deploying more than 500 volunteers at over 100 polling locations on election day last Tuesday. Volunteers were tasked with collecting signatures for the group’s “Safe Schools, Safe Communities” campaign.
The campaign is allegedly part of an effort to address the state’s high rate of suicide as well as gun violence in general, with the Maine Gun Safety Coalition arguing that having the extreme risk protection order, also known as a red flag law, would have prevented the Lewiston mass shooting on October 25, 2023, which left 18 people dead and 13 injured.
The executive directors of the group stress they have been pushing for a red flag law for about five years.