Maine teen group targets Democrats who opposed gun safety bills this year

In the wake of last weekend’s mass shootings, which left over two dozen people dead, Pearl Benjamin, a Camden student and co-founder of Maine Teen Advocacy Coalition, is calling on state Democrats to pursue real reform during the next legislative session.

Inspired by March for Our Lives, Maine Teen Advocacy Coalition formed in 2018 as a group comprised of Maine students working to effect change around gun control, climate change, and other pressing issues. Now, the coalition wants to hold state Democrats accountable for casting votes that prevented the bulk of gun reform bills put before the state legislature this year from becoming law.

Many of those reform efforts, including various safe storage and waiting period bills, failed to be voted out of committee. A ‘red flag’ bill — which would allow a medical practitioner to determine whether someone is mentally unfit to own a firearm or has a history of violent that would make them unfit — failed to pass in its original form but was partially revived by Gov. Janet Mills after her staff met with the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to work out an alternative that was signed into law this June.

Despite mounting pressure by Democrats nationally for reform, some Maine Democrats, Benjamin notes, voted with Republicans to prevent these state gun bills from becoming law.

Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/maine-teen-group-targets-democrats-who-opposed-gun-safety-bills-this-year/