Maine Background Check Proposition, Question 3, (Gun Registration) Defeated

By Dean Weingartenmaine-question-3-vote-no

Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)-
One of the many bright spots in the 2016 elections for supporters of the Second Amendment was the defeat of Question 3 in Maine.  The question was portrayed as relatively straightforward.  From ballotpedia:

Do you want to require background checks prior to the sale or transfer of firearms between individuals not licensed as firearms dealers, with failure to do so punishable by law, and with some exceptions for family members, hunting, self-defense, lawful competitions, and shooting range activity?[8]

Question 3 was more complicated in reality.  It was three full pages long. You may read the entire proposition in a pdf file at this maine.gov page:

It does not matter much now.  A large group of independent minded Maine citizens rose up against the out of state money spent by Michael Bloomberg.  They defeated his gun control agenda. The NRA was able to send a million dollars to defend Maine’s Citizens’ rights.

As with all the propositions pushed by Michael Bloomberg, the proposition was more concerned with setting up the prerequisites for  infringements in the future than any attempt to reduce crime.

Question 3 set up a future registration system. It could have required “background checks” without requiring permanent records.  Instead, it required that every firearm be recorded by serial number on permanent federal paperwork.

It banned 18 to 20 year old citizens from legally acquiring pistols. That right had existed in Maine since it became a state.  There was no exemption in Question 3 for young adults that were in law enforcement or the military.

Bloomberg spent more than four million dollars. From wlbz2.com:

Trahan is rallying sportsmen and sport shooters in an attempt to defeat Question 3. Spending on the “Yes” side of the Question is Bloomberg driven and amounts to more than four million dollars. Most of the “No” money has come from the National Rifle Association and amounts to one million dollars.

The proposition was very similar to the  proposition 584 in Washington State. Second Amendment supporters learned from that disaster in fighting Michael Bloomberg in Maine.  Much of the difficulty was the full court press by those pushing population disarmament.  With propositions in four states, the effort was split.  It is difficult to compete with a billionaire who can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a whim.

Maine citizens refused to allow their rights to be purchased by a New York City billionaire. They were outspent by four to one.  As many people voted against question 3 as voted for both the Republican candidate (Trump) and the Libertarian (Johnson).

Question 3 lost 52% (390,200) to 48% (359,733).

Maine won.  Bloomberg lost.

In Washington State, with Proposition 594, the question was confused by a competing proposition, 595.  Proposition 595 would have essentially nullified proposition 594.  The complication was too much to explain to the voters with a limited budget.  A split in the vote happened in Washington State.  It could have happened in Maine.

With the small government vote split between the Republicans and Libertarians, Trump did not carry the southern electoral district in Maine.  Trump received 332,591 votes, Johnson 37,578.  Together they totaled 370,169.

Hillary Clinton received 352,485, Stein 14,006. Together they totaled 366,491.

The lesson form Maine for Second Amendment supporters: keep the choices simple and obvious.  Do not split the small government vote.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

Link to Gun Watch

About Dean Weingarten;

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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Tim Cox

As a Mainer and having the same proposition questions on the ballots year after year on liberal policies I am sure it will be back with new wording in the near future. the local schools had mock elections prier to and most agreed to it mostly because of what is taught in the schools now, the pot question passed here finally cause its about the 4th time its been on the ballot, the liberal southern cities and coast made up of a lot from our southern neighbors moving here( read Mass and Conn) for a better life bring their liberal… Read more »

Vanns40

Having followed this from the beginning, and knowing a couple of the people involved, I can say that Bloomberg should consider this one of the most humiliating defeats ever. Despite millions of dollars thrown into the State by Bloomberg, despite paying people to trespass on private property to, in some cases, improperly collect signatures, despite Bloomberg’s minions lying time after time about what this Bill wouldn’t do, volunteer citizens rose up, took off time from work, worked hundreds of hours to educate folks on just how onerous this Bill was and they DEFEATED one of the most wealthy, powerful men… Read more »

Ralph

The fight is far from over. Those figures belie the fact that there was an astounding 4% difference between winnig or losing. In a state like Maine, which has a long history of firearms freedom, this is still disturbing and should cause us not to let down our guard. With a new pro-gun president, and a congress who will hopefully support him, we must begin to take action starting today to reverse all of the anti-gun, anti-constitutional laws, and executive orders that have been passed at both state and federal levels. This election dealt a blow to the gun grabbers… Read more »

JRA

Congratulations, Maine! The citizens and gun owners of Maine voted correctly in my mind on Question 3. Unfortunately, Bloomberg won in other contests like this. I knew Maine was gun friendly based on the gun laws of the state. Please keep up the strong support for the 2nd Amendment and defeat the controllists like Bloomberg.