***This document was produced by Project Educate, an independent grass-roots project of concerned Maine citizens who want to keep our tradition of gun ownership alive and well for the next generation of Mainers. I am not paid, or reimbursed in any way for posting this document. I am a firm believer that ALL rights need to be defended. In this instance I feel that a paper trail linking guns to specific individuals, is exactly what the drafters of the US Constitution were looking to avoid when they said the right of US citizens to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed!***

1. This proposed law would ban all private transfers (with very limited exceptions) in Maine, whether they be permanent or temporary. It will become against the law to loan your best friend a shotgun so he can go hunting for a weekend. If this law passes, Mainers could be sent to jail for what is legal and normal today.

2. This proposed law is backed, financed, organized, supported and run by out-of-state money and out-of-state political organizations to make Maine more like MA, CT, NY and NJ.

3. The former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, is the chief financial backer.

4. Most of the signature collectors were hired and paid for by an out-of-state firm with money supplied by Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun political organizations. Their effort is not a Maine grassroots effort.

5. Mainers will be bombarded by thousands and thousands of advertisements extolling the need for New York Style gun control here in Maine. This will be far worse than the bear hunting referendum as Michael Bloomberg has much more money than the Humane Society. It will all be out-of-state money trying to import out-of-state values on Mainers.

6. This proposed law will require you to go to a gun store, fill out a form 4473, pay what ever fee the store requires($30-$60?) and get federal permission, all to just buy a gun from your neighbor and/or best friend.

7. This proposed law is the first step towards registration. Once all gun transfers must be done with a 4473, all that will be needed is a new law or an executive order requiring that all 4473s and accompanying records need to be stored in a central database. This proposed law is vague and unenforceable. As we have seen in Washington and Oregon, once this law passes, a new call for gun registration will follow shortly after.

8. All gun dealers must conduct a background check whether they are at their store, at a gun show or any other place. This has been the law since 1998.

9. It has been the law since 1968 that you cannot buy a gun from a private party who is not a resident of your own state. Any gun bought on-line out-of-state must be shipped to a gun store to transfer to you.

10. An unintended consequence of this proposed law will be to make many law-abiding Mainers criminals for doing normal things that they have been doing for years. This proposed law would make “furnishing” a gun to another person illegal. That means if you give access to a gun to another person then you have committed a crime. This could be as simple as going into a gas station while leaving your shotgun in the car with a friend.

11. Mainers do not need New York style gun control in our state. It’s a failed New York solution to a problem Maine doesn’t have. It will do nothing to fight crime but it will make criminals out of good Maine people. Criminals will just keep doing what they always do, break the law.

For more information, visit http://www.gunownersofmaine.org/