Committee approves Dion community protection order bill

The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted 7-3 in favor of a bill from Sen. Mark Dion, D-Portland, to increase the identification of high-risk individuals and the capacity of communities to address these risks at a work session on Monday. All Democrats on the Committee voted in favor of the bill.

This proposed legislation comes in response to recent school shootings and a heated debate about gun violence across the state and country. As amended, LD 1884 “An Act To Create a Community Protection Order To Allow Courts To Prevent High-risk Individuals from Possessing Firearms,” offers an avenue for law enforcement or concerned individuals to petition the courts to temporarily remove weapons from a high-risk individual, who potentially poses a threat to others or themselves. Additionally, the amended bill incorporates a minor provision, as suggested by Maine Attorney General Janet Mills, to fix a technical gap in the ability of the court to remove weapons from people admitted into outpatient status.

“With this bill we can provide the general public the same protection we give family members of domestic abuse survivors in dangerous situations. As when someone takes out a protection order against an abuser, it will have to be shown that the public is in persistent and immediate danger for a community protection order to be obtained,” said Sen. Dion. “We’ve come a long way in recent years towards ending domestic violence. It is time to do the same for violence in our schools and our communities.”

This community protection order allows the court to temporarily remove weapons from high-risk individuals demonstrating a clear and consistent pattern of concerning behavior put themselves at risk or others. After 14 days, the individual would appear in court for a hearing. The order is designed to ensure that temporary removal of weapons would be directed and vetted solely by the court.

“This bill won’t solve all gun violence, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to address potential threats to public safety,” said Sen. Dion. “We can make progress on advancing public safety in a manner that is both reasonable and compatible with the principle of self-protection that underscores the rationale of our state constitutional right to bear arms.”

While LD 1884 has bipartisan cosponsorship, the minority, all-Republican vote of the Judiciary Committee was for only the minor fix from the Attorney General.

“We’ve talked about this issue for years,” said Sen. Dion. “It is time we actually did something with our votes and passed some meaningful legislation, not rely simply on a technical fix that could have been made long before today to claim we’ve done something to end the scourge of gun violence in this country.”

LD 1884 now heads to the Senate.