Friday, March 29

Opinion: Senate gun safety bill is a victory, thanks to Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King


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Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, and Rep. Vicki Doudera, D-Camden, are co-chairs of the Gun Safety Caucus in the Maine Legislature.

For the first time in 30 years, Democrats, Republicans and independents have come together to support meaningful gun safety reforms.

On June 21, 64 members of the Senate – including Maine Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent – voted in favor of legislation that will help save lives, prevent gun violence, strengthen school security and fund mental health services.

The compromise legislation has been a long time coming. It took the tragedy of another school shooting, this time in at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were murdered by an 18-year-old gunman, for meaningful Congressional action.

As co-chairs of the Maine Legislature’s Gun Safety Caucus, we appreciate that our state’s two senators stepped forward to help lead the U.S. Senate to this important moment.

Though we are not immune from gun violence and gun-related deaths, by some measures our state is safer than many. So it would be easy to look at what happened in New York, South Carolina, Florida, Texas and countless other communities across the country and say that would never happen here.

But Collins and King didn’t do that. Instead, they helped to build a nonpartisan coalition that we hope can withstand pressure from the most radical voices advocating for a firearm free-for-all in our country.

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“Our plan will help prevent gun violence while protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans,” Collins said in a prepared statement.

She’s right.

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