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

In the year since the mass shooting in Lewiston, police have invoked Maine’s yellow flag law more than 400 times in an attempt to take away guns from people they believe pose a danger to themselves or others.

Before the tragedy, law enforcement had used the law much more sparingly – just 81 times between the law’s passage in 2020 and the state’s worst-ever mass shooting on Oct. 25, 2023. The next day, it was used 412 times, with the shooting continuing through Oct. 22 of this year.

The average number of yellow flag calls increased from about five per month before the shooting to an average of 34 each month thereafter. And there is no indication that police are less aggressive now than in the weeks immediately after the tragedy, or that the risk of violence has decreased. The number of cases rose to 50 in September, the highest monthly total so far.

Ben Strick, vice president of adult behavioral health at Spurwink, a Portland-based nonprofit that provides 24-hour telehealth screenings through the yellow flag process, said that despite the law’s broader application, the severity of what they see does not has decreased.

“These are still horrific incidents,” Strick said. “I can’t say for sure, but I hope this law will prevent suicides, homicides and deadly force incidents.”

Maine is the only state with a yellow flag law, while 21 states have a red flag applicable provisions making it easier for law enforcement authorities to temporarily confiscate weapons from persons posing a threat. Gun reform advocates are pushing to replace Maine’s law with a more aggressive version known as a red flag law, while the Mills administration and others say Maine’s current law works.

The Lewiston shooting killed 18 people at two locations: a bar and a bowling alley. The shooter, Robert Card, later committed suicide and was found in a storage trailer in Lisbon. Card has a history of serious mental illness and in July 2023, he made threats of violence in a New York state hospital in July 2023.

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

The Maine Attorney General’s Office provides a summary of each use of the yellow flag law, without providing names or other identifying details. The accounts reveal harrowing details of domestic violence, suicide threats and other volatile events that could have led to a greater tragedy.

For example, on October 19, 2024, Gorham police deployed the Yellow Flag Law when “a 50-year-old man (fought) with his girlfriend to retrieve a handgun and shot himself; His 14-year-old son held him until the police arrived,” we read in the summary.

On October 10, in an unidentified area of Androscoggin County, the sheriff’s office reported that “a 36-year-old man in a manic state brutally attacked two co-workers, unprovoked. (He) believes that he is guided by his dead mother and is a prophet.”

In another incident that occurred on October 19, the York County Sheriff’s Office reported that “a 25-year-old man texted a girl a photo of himself holding a gun to his head and threatening to kill himself.”

According to a study published in the August 2024 issue of the Journal of the American Academy, data on red flag laws in California, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., show that one suicide is prevented for every 17 to 23 times that red flag laws are used to temporarily removal of weapons. Psychiatry and Law.

According to state data, in more than 90% of yellow flag cases, people express suicidal or homicidal intent. More than half of the cases – 52% – cite suicide threats, and 17% – threats of murder. The remaining ones concern both types of threats or do not identify the nature of potential violence.

Sanford Police Maj. Mark Dyer, who heads his department’s support services, said the “steady increase” in use of the law since the Lewiston tragedy is “due to officers, judges and hospitals becoming familiar with and accustomed to its operation.”

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

The law requires police to place victims in protective custody, have them evaluated by a mental health professional to confirm they pose a danger to themselves or others, and provide a hearing before a judge to issue a temporary order to seize someone’s firearm.

Changes to the law – proposed by the Mills administration and took effect this spring – have helped improve the operation of the law, Strick and Sanford police say.

Sgt. Everett Allen, who works in the Sanford Police Department’s mental health unit, said one of the big changes was extending the time police can arrange and hold a hearing before a judge from 14 to 30 days.

“It kept us from working in such a crazy way,” Allen said. “It gave us time to get everyone on the same page and understand what was happening in each case. It’s a better collaborative process.”

Strick said the updates to the law that went into effect in August were “a whole bunch of little tweaks that were intended to make things work better in certain situations.”

Strick said when it comes to mental health evaluations, under the updated law, they can now use “third party” information when conducting a mental health evaluation. This is helpful because when a person facing gun confiscation refuses to talk, mental health professionals can now use information from friends or family members and other evidence, such as text messages, to determine whether the law should be followed. he said.

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

Red flag laws do not require mental health screening. Under red flag laws, family members or the police can directly go to court to determine whether someone’s gun should be temporarily removed because it poses a risk to themselves or others.

“We are the exception for a reason,” Groban said. “The preliminary ruling on a gun restraining order should not be based on mental illness. What we really care about is whether someone is dangerous.”

The Maine Gun Safety Coalition will be collecting signatures on Election Day to bring this issue directly to 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.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, in a written statement marking the year since the Lewiston shootings, urged Congress to pass a series of gun reforms, including a nationwide red flag law.

However, state Sen. Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield, said Maine’s yellow flag law should not be repealed.

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

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

“The most important thing is that we have constitutional rights, Second Amendment rights,” Keim said, referring to the right to bear arms. “We should protect these rights to the highest level possible.”

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

“The governor believes the changes introduced earlier this year strengthen the law by providing law enforcement with additional useful tools to take away guns from people who should not have them,” Ben Goodman, a spokesman for Mills, said in a statement. “More broadly, she believes that law enforcement agencies recognize the value of the law, particularly in the wake of the Lewiston tragedy, and with better training and greater knowledge of the law have made a determined and concerted effort to use it more to protect their communities. “