Maine's yellow flag law has been used 412 times in the year since the mass shooting in Lewiston

In the year since the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine’s yellow flag law has been invoked more than 400 times by officers seeking to seize guns from people they believe pose a danger to themselves or others.

Law enforcement used the law much more sparingly before the tragedy; just 81 times from 2020, when the law was first enacted, to Oct. 25, 2023, the state’s worst-ever mass shooting. The law was used 412 times as of the next day. Filming continued until October 22 this year.

The average number of yellow flag interceptions increased from approximately five in the month before the shooting to an average of 34 each month thereafter. And there is no indication that police are any less aggressive or that the risk of violence has diminished than in the weeks immediately following the tragedy. The number of cases rose to 50 in September, the highest monthly total ever.

Ben Strick, vice president of adult behavioral health for Spurwink, a Portland-based nonprofit that provides 24-hour telehealth screenings as part of the yellow flag process, said that despite greater use of the law, the severity of what he’s seeing hasn’t diminished. .

“These continue to be frightening events,” Strick said. “I can’t say that for sure, but my hope is that this law prevents suicides, murders and deadly force incidents.”

Maine Only state with yellow flag law, 21 states have red flag Laws on the books that make it easier for law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from people who pose a danger. While gun reform advocates are trying to replace Maine’s law with a more aggressive version known as a red flag law, the Mills administration and others argue that Maine’s current law is working.

In the Lewiston attack, 18 people lost their lives in two places, a bar and a bowling alley. The attacker, Robert Card, later killed himself and was found in a warehouse trailer in Lisbon. Card had a history of serious mental illness and was hospitalized in New York state in July 2023 after threatening violence for two weeks.

Advocates for the current law, courts and mental health providers say it was updated this spring to streamline the process and make it easier for law enforcement to use.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office provides a summary of each time the yellow flag law has been used, without using names or other identifying details. The accounts reveal harrowing details of domestic violence, suicide threats and other volatile events that could result in further tragedy.

For example, on October 19, 2024, Gorham police reported, “A 50-year-old man was struggling with his girlfriend for a gun to shoot himself;” used the yellow flag law; Her 14-year-old son restrained her until police arrived,” according to the summary.

On October 10, in an unidentified area of Androscoggin County, the sheriff’s office reported that “a 36-year-old man, while in a manic state, viciously assaulted two co-workers for no reason. (He) believes that his dead mother is guiding him and that he is a prophet.”

In another incident on Oct. 19, the York County Sheriff’s Office reported that “a 25-year-old man texted his girlfriend and held a gun to her head, threatening to kill himself.”

Red flag law data in California, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington show that a suicide is prevented for every 17 to 23 times a red flag law is used to temporarily remove guns, according to a study published in August 2024 in the Journal of the American Academy. Psychiatry and Law.

In more than 90 percent of yellow flag cases, people express suicidal or homicidal intent, according to state data. More than half (52 percent) of the cases involved suicide threats, and 17 percent involved murder threats. The remainder include both types of threats or do not describe the nature of potential violence.

Sanford police Maj. Mark Dyer, who heads his department’s support services, said the “steady increase” in the law’s use since the Lewiston tragedy is because “officers, judges and hospitals are getting used to and accustomed to how the law works.”

Sanford has a mental health unit within the police department and has been one of the statewide leaders in helping other police forces learn how to use the law.

The law requires police to take people into protective custody, have them evaluated by a mental health professional to confirm they pose a threat to themselves or others, and have a hearing before a judge to order the temporary removal of someone’s firearms.

Strick and Sanford police said changes to the law proposed by the Mills administration and signed into law this spring helped the law run more smoothly.

Sergeant. Everett Allen, who works in the Sanford Police Department’s mental health unit, said one of the big changes is increasing the time police are allowed to hold and hold a hearing before a judge from 14 days to 30 days.

“That allowed us to not work so crazy,” Allen said. “It ensured that everyone was on the same page and that we understood what was happening in each situation. It’s a better collaborative process.”

Updates to the law that took effect in August are “a series of small fixes designed to make things work better in certain situations,” Strick said.

Strick said that according to the updated law in terms of mental health evaluation, they can now use “third party” information when performing mental health evaluation. This is helpful because when the person whose guns may be taken away refuses to talk, mental health professionals can now use information from friends or family members and use other evidence, such as a text message, to determine whether the law should be used. in question.

But Margaret Groban, a Maine Gun Safety Coalition board member and retired prosecutor, said that despite improvements to the yellow flag law this year, the law is still far more cumbersome than the red flag laws in 21 other states.

Red flag laws do not require mental health screenings. Under red flag laws, family members or police can petition directly to the court to determine whether a person’s guns should be temporarily removed because they pose a danger to themselves or others.

“There’s a reason we’re outliers,” Groban said. “The initial decision regarding gun restrictions should not be based on mental illness. What we really care about is whether someone is dangerous or not.”

The Maine Gun Safety Coalition will be collecting signatures on Election Day to put the issue directly before voters in the upcoming election.

“The yellow flag law was a good start, but we can do better,” Groban said. “I hope Maine sees (passing the red flag law) as an opportunity to make our state safer.”

In a written statement a year after the Lewiston shootings, Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress to enact a series of gun reforms, including a national red flag law.

But State Sen. Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield, said there is no need to repeal Maine’s yellow flag law.

“I see no reason to repeal the yellow flag law and replace it with a red flag law,” Keim said.

Keim said Maine’s yellow flag law and New York state’s red flag laws could have been used in Robert Card’s case, but neither state did so.

“The bottom line is that we have constitutional rights, Second Amendment rights,” Keim said, referring to the right to bear arms. “We must protect these rights to the fullest extent possible.”

Meanwhile, Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, also supports the updated yellow flag law.

“The Governor believes the changes made earlier this year strengthen the law by providing law enforcement with additional useful tools to seize guns from people who should not have them,” Mills spokesman Ben Goodman said in a statement. “More broadly, he believes that law enforcement, especially in the wake of the tragedy in Lewiston, recognizes the value of the law and, with more training and greater familiarity, is making a strong and concerted effort to better leverage the law to protect their communities.”