Panel probing Lewiston mass shooting says red flag law needs major revamp

The commission found that "some members of the judiciary and law enforcement expressed frustration with the yellow flag process." (Courtesy photos)

PORTLAND, Maine - The Independent Commission to Investigate the Facts of the Tragedy in Lewiston released its final report on Tuesday, and while the commission was not charged with proposing policy changes that would prevent another tragedy like the Lewiston shooting last year, its findings underscore clear areas of improvement in Maine's gun safety laws in order to make our communities safer.

Critically, the report spells out in the executive summary that law enforcement officials testified Maine's yellow flag law is "cumbersome, inefficient, and unduly restrictive regarding who can initiate a proceeding." Unlike red flag laws in other states, in Maine only a law enforcement officer is able to initiate a proceeding, thus limiting the ability of family or friends of someone at extreme risk to themselves or others to step in.

"When there is someone who is a danger to themselves, or to the community, do the uncomfortable task and protect us," said Danielle Jasper, a survivor of the Lewiston shooting.

"The best way we can honor the victims of the horrific act of violence in Lewiston last year is by doing our due diligence through a thoughtful and honest examination of what happened and, critically, how it could have been prevented," said Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition. "Today's commission report does that, and the Maine Gun Safety Coalition thanks Governor Mills and those who served our state and our public interest by engaging in the difficult but vitally important work of learning from this tragedy to ensure no other Maine families have to go through this experience in the future. I want to underscore that gun violence is not inevitable. The most devastating conclusion to come from the report is that there were many times and ways that Robert Card might have been separated from his weapons, potentially preventing the tragedy that followed, but wasn't."

On page 71 of the report's findings, the commission writes, "some members of the judiciary and law enforcement expressed frustration with the yellow flag process. Law enforcement officers reported that the process was too burdensome and took too long, placing outsize burdens, especially on smaller law enforcement agencies' forces."

Gun tragedies are preventable with commonsense tools that allow law enforcement and -- of particular importance to this case -- families to ensure that people who are at extreme risk to themselves or others are separated from deadly firearms while they're in crisis.