AUGUSTA, Maine — Moments of silence and displays of tributes were present in Augusta Wednesday as Maine lawmakers returned to the State House for the new legislative session—returning for the first time since the Lewiston mass shooting.
Before the Senate and House convened, hundreds of Mainers gathered inside the State House in support of stronger gun safety laws.
Organizers with the Maine Gun Safety Coalition say they handed out more than 700 orange ribbons, the symbol for gun violence prevention, during Wednesday's press conference.
"I’m very touched that we had a large turnout," Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, said. "I think there’s an urgent need right now to pass gun safety laws."
Multiple speakers addressed the crowd to share why they support new gun laws including Arthur Barnard who lost his son Arthur Strout in the Lewiston mass shooting.
"It’s not all about taking guns, it really isn’t. I think what’s happened here is we as a nation have gotten careless in how we’ve written our laws," he said from the podium.
Barnard said Maine lawmakers need to "meet halfway" when they debate proposed gun laws this session.
Other Maine gun organizations were present at Wednesday's rally arguing the state needs to enforce current gun laws, not propose new ones.
Laura Whitcomb is the president of Gun Owners of Maine and said law enforcement agencies should have enforced Maine's yellow flag law in the case of Robert Card, the Lewiston mass shooter.
The yellow flag law mandates a dual evaluation process, requiring both a medical professional and a judge to agree on the potential threat posed by an individual before authorizing the police to confiscate their weapons for a year.
"We firmly believe that gun-free zones and a lack of mental health access is the main cause for [the shootings] because inanimate objects do not murder people," she added.
Whitcomb said her organization was present Wednesday to provide facts and logic to the conversation about guns.
"They believe assault weapons are any type of semi-automatic weapons, which would decimate Mainers’ ability to hunt," she added.
Republican State Representative Donald Ardell, who represents parts of Aroostook County, said one of his priorities during this session is to defend the rights of Maine people.
“Because as a legislative body, we can’t operate outside of the framework of the constitution," he said.
He, and other lawmakers, are also waiting for the independent commission tasked with investigating the Lewiston mass shooting to present their findings to the Legislature.
Rep. Ardell added he hopes conversations about the lack of mental health resources are also addressed when talking about new gun legislation.
Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Vicki Doudera, who represents Camden and Rockport, said the Lewiston mass shooting, and the mass shooting that happened in Bowdoin last April have put more urgency on these issues.
“You know there’s so much we could do, gun violence is such a complex issue," she added. “We want to do what’s right for Maine, so that takes time to really figure that out.”
While the aftermath of the recent mass shootings is on top of mind for Mainers, Doudera said gun safety legislation goes beyond preventing future tragic events.
She said guns are used in a high rate of suicides and domestic violence incidents in Maine.
“No one wants to have families experience the trauma of suicide or domestic violence," Rep. Doudera added. “There is no one who wants to see gun violence happen in our state it’s just how we go about it, how we make the state safer.”
Republican Representative John Andrews, of Paris, told NEWS CENTER Maine he proposed legislation for a so-called 'yellow alert system' which he said would act like an Amber Alert. Andrews said if someone did something to "trigger a statewide alert", gun dealers would get a text and photo of that person and prevent that individual from buying guns.