Democratic Candidates Differ on Gun Background Checks
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Right now in Maine, if you buy a gun at a store like L.L. Bean or Cabela’s you have to undergo a criminal background check. But if you buy a gun from a friend, or from a private seller at a gun show, or through an ad in Uncle Henry’s, no background check is performed. Background checks are designed to keep guns out of the hands of illegal immigrants, underage children and those convicted of a felony or domestic violence assault.
“I think that it’s important that someone who’s turned down for a purchase of a firearm can’t turn around and buy it at some other venue,” says Rosa Scarcelli, who runs an affordable housing business and is a Democratic candidate for governor.
She says she was surprised to learn that she’s the only Democrat in the governor’s race in favor of mandatory criminal background checks on all firearms purchases. “I thought it was a common sense measure and one that certainly should be part of our party’s position and I think it’s important that we show leadership on this issue.”
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He says a law requiring background checks on all firearms sales is unenforceable and unnecessary. “Maine has the highest gun ownership per capita in the country, but it is also the second safest state in the country,” McGowan says. “So when we look at those issues of gun ownership and gun purchases, just remember that from the day Maine was started, people have been buying and selling and trading guns back and forth, it’s part of the rural economy.”
You have the second safest state in the country, partially because you have the highest gun ownership per capita in the country, but more so that Maine is 97% white. But you’re not going to have a the second safest state much longer, because the black population, mainly Somali “refugees,” have increased the state’s black population by more than a third between 2000 and 2005.
BTW, I have my doubts about Maine being the most gun-owning state in the union. Compared to Texas?
