Maine Constitutional Carry passes Senate, House, with minor amendments

 LD 652 (SP 245), "An Act To Authorize the Carrying of Concealed Handguns without a Permit"  passed  the Senate, 23-12, last Friday.

Today, 1 June, the Maine House  passed a lightly amended Constitutional Carry bill, 83-62.  The House added two amendments to the bill.   From pressherald.com:

More votes are required in the Senate before the bill moves forward, for procedural reasons and because the House adopted two amendments to the bill. One would require anyone under age 21 to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The other would require a person carrying a concealed gun to tell a police officer if they’re in possession of a weapon during a traffic stop.

Governor Le Page has already said that he will sign the bill.   The only question is whether the minor differences in the bill will be used to kill it or to significantly change it in conference committee.   If I were Senator Brakey,  I would urge the Senate to accept the House amendments and pass the bill to Governor Le Page.   Many have said that the House, with a Democrat majority, would never pass a constitutional carry bill. 

The head of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, David Trahan, said that out of state money was  a factor that helped the bill pass ... in a negative way.  From pressherald.com:

“Maine people don’t like it when money and power coming from out of state tries to influence their decision-making,” said Trahan, who served in the Legislature for 12 years. “That was a factor.”

Could it be that the Bloomberg money and Everytown advertising helped push constitutional carry to passage?

Maine would become the 7th state to restore constitutional carry.  Vermont has always had constitutional carry.   Five other states have restored the right to bear arms, both openly and concealed, without special government permission.  They are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, and Wyoming.  No additional problems have been detected in states that have embraced constitutional carry.

Update: Governor Le Page says that the requirement for anyone under the age of 21 to get a permit is an insult to those under the are of 21 who have or are serving in the armed forces, and he will not sign the bill with that amendment. 

The Senate amended the bill to exempt service members under the are of 21, and sent it back to the House. 

Developments will be reported as they occur.

 ©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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