David Trahan: Rooks column got gun shops all wrong
Rather than have another fight over firearms, let’s concentrate on opening Maine businesses safely.
David Trahan April 17, 2020
In Douglas Rooks’ April 9 column, “It’s not easy to define essential,” he opined whether gun shops were “essential businesses” and, furthermore, questioned Gov. Janet Mills’ decision to designate them so. He went on to say it was the NRA that pressured the Trump administration to allow gun shops to remain open.
It is true that the NRA sent out alerts to their members and filed suit in California. But I worked with the Mills administration over four days to designate gun retailers as essential. You might be surprised to learn the Second Amendment and the NRA were never mentioned in any of our many communications.
Instead the governor’s concerns were always the same, “How do I open gun shops and keep Maine people safe?” Almost all our discussions revolved around that simple and fair question, and I believe my answer was equally fair and reasonable.
Maine is unique in our geography, we have a few heavily populated urban centers, surrounded by mostly rural farmlands and forests. In recent decades, it has been state and local policy to discourage sprawl and push rural populations into urban centers. These policies have led to consolidated schools, Super Walmarts and massive home construction centers, all in the name of saving money. Everything we do now seems to be centered around “bigger is better.” We build bigger stadiums for sports, bigger buses, trains, cruise ships, prisons, gas stations and the list go on. What do they all have in common? They push more people into congested, common areas, making people more vulnerable to a potential pandemic.
Rural small businesses, like gun shops, are a product of necessity, unlike a big-box store that relies on selling high volumes of cheaper made products with little, if any, service after the sale. Local gun shops have established a more specialized market offering gun repair and service, hands-on safety training and access to safe storage options. In many cases, they know their customers by name and many are neighbors; as a result of their much smaller customer base, shop owners can more easily implement policies like limiting in-store patrons, social distancing and curbside pickup. I predict when history measures success in combating the virus, it will find social distancing is a natural byproduct and protection for those living the rural lifestyle.
Rooks claims that gun owners are practicing “radical individualism.” I believe each person’s reason to buy a firearm is different — maybe they feel threatened, they want to protect their property and their family, who knows — but shutting down small gun shops in rural areas, and forcing motivated buyers into urban centers to purchase their firearms in a big-box store, endangers not only buyers, but their community as well.
Big stores see hundreds if not thousands of customers, many from populated areas, many with a confirmed coronavirus outbreak. More people in smaller places means more risk. Forcing rural Mainers to travel from relatively safe rural area with no outbreak into urban, heavily populated areas to shop for any product means greater risk. If exposed, they are likely to return home to spread the virus.
Guns and gun control are very contentious issues and some people seem to use any excuse to offer their opinion on the subject. I believe gun shops are essential businesses and should remain open as the pathway to exercising an individual’s right under the Constitution, just as Rooks is free to express his opinion under the First Amendment. And I believe gun shops are a much safer place do business.
In reality, whether you believe gun sales are essential is driven by one’s own political beliefs and feelings about firearms.
Very soon, we will be looking at reopening businesses and going back to some version of normal life. As we do, I think it would be more productive for all of us to ask, “How do we open shops and keep Maine people safe?”
David Trahan of Waldoboro, a former state legislator, is executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of that organization.
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From the SAM ILA Facebook Page: April 1, 2020
Important-New Gun Shop/Range Rules Released by the Governor
For the last five days SAM has worked closely with the Governor’s office, (thank you Governor) to try and designate gun shops as “essential businesses”. We are proud of our successful effort and role in making this important change a reality. We also appreciate Homeland Security and the Trump administration for the new guidelines. Thank you, Senators Dow, Timberlake and Keim and all the other House and Senate legislators, SAM members, Jeff Zimba and partners at the NRA and GOME. Below are new rules for gun shops and ranges that just came from staff in the Governor’s office.
The last week has shown why being a member of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine is important to protecting all of our outdoor interests. If you are not a member, consider joining at: www.sportsmansallianceofmaine.org. You can call to join at: 207-623-4589.
New Rules for Gun Shops and Shooting Range Operation-Governor’s Office
Consistent with changed federal guidance and EO’s 19 and 28, sporting goods stores that sell firearms and ammunition may transact business as follows:
1. Store sales are for firearms and ammunition only;
2. Store sales must be by order and door-side pick up to the maximum extent possible with social distancing enforced; and;
3. In-store customers at one time must comply with the limits and restrictions in EO 28 with social distancing enforced.
And for ranges:
1. Open for law enforcement training not to exceed 5 persons at a time on range and on the grounds with social distancing enforced; and
2. Other personal use not to exceed 5 persons at a time on range and on the grounds with social distancing enforced.
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George Hale and Ric Tyler REWIND 3/30/20
SAM Executive Director, David Trahan on WVOM radio this morning talking about the reasons Gun Shops should be considered “essential businesses” and opened up.
https://www.wvomfm.com/…/ghrt-rewind-03-30-trahan-gun-shop…/ If you are not a SAM member, consider joining at: www.sportsmansallianceofmaine.org
David on George Hale & Ric Tyler
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George Hale and Ric Tyler REWIND
Listen to David’s interview on WVOM radio on dark Money and the Influence on the General Election.
David on George Hale & Ric Tyler Show
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Animal Rights Activists Put Land For Maine’s Future Program in Peril
By David Trahan – December 6, 2019
On June 17, 54 people demanded the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee limit hunting, fishing and trapping on public lands purchased through the Land for Maine’s Future program, leaving many in the room surprised and shocked.
Fifteen, mostly from conservation groups, testified in favor of the same bill, L.D. 911, An Act to Authorize a General Fund Bond Issue to Promote Land Conservation, Working Waterfronts, Water Access and Outdoor Recreation. L.D. 911 got caught up in political wrangling and, as a result, did not garner enough votes. While the Legislature carried the bill over to be resolved in 2020, passage of this critically important conservation bond is not guaranteed and remains elusive.
I recognized many of the testifiers from past animal rights battles, but to the Appropriations Committee members this public hearing looked like a massive grassroots uprising. These activists claimed that allowing hunting was unsafe, trapping was cruel and unnecessary, and special interests like sportsmen and women should be limited on our public lands.
First a little history. Thirty-two years ago, and just after the devastating outbreak of spruce budworm that destroyed spruce and fir forests throughout northern Maine, the Legislature started the now popular Land for Maine’s Future program. Among other goals, the program was designed to compete with individuals and groups buying hundreds of thousands of acres of cheap land that could then be closed off to public access. For the average person who could not afford to own their own land for recreation, the program became a tool to protect traditional outdoor recreation, including places with access to hunting and fishing that went back generations.
Over the past three decades, Land for Maine’s Future has “assisted in the protection of 54 water access sites, 40 farms totaling more than 9,700 acres, 24 commercial working waterfront properties, more than 1,200 miles of shore lands, 58 miles of former railroad corridors for recreational trails and over 570,000 acres of conservation and recreation lands including 332,000 acres of working lands with permanent conservation easements.”
Recently, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine was successful in amending the program to encourage the conservation of critical deer yards and trout-spawning habitat. This change has led to the protection of more than 5,000 acres of critical deer wintering areas and miles of trout-spawning habitat.
Through decades of partnership between diverse stakeholders, Land for Maine’s Future enjoys broad support. Key to maintaining the program’s success is a provision that ensures “hunting, fishing, trapping and public access may not be prohibited on land acquired with bond proceeds, except to the extent of applicable state, local or federal laws, rules and regulations and except for working waterfront projects and farmland protection projects.”
This longstanding policy, passionately defended by groups like the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and supported by our partners in the conservation community, guarantees that the traditional uses of hunting, fishing and trapping on Land for Maine’s Future lands can continue, and because of it the program garners support from rural and suburban conservative voters and legislators.
The reason this is important is because, according to the state constitution, a two-thirds vote of the Legislature is necessary before a general fund bond can be placed on the ballot for voter approval. It is this provision that guarantees compromise between the political parties and insures the Land for Maine’s Future program serves all users and all regions of Maine.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from sportsmen and women is how difficult it is to find places to hunt, fish and trap. It doesn’t take long when traveling in Maine to see places with the bright yellow and orange “No Hunting Allowed” signs. They often go on for what seems like miles. Many ex-hunters cite this lack of access as the reason they gave up hunting. Public lands not only preserve rural jobs and traditions, but they also enable lower-income Mainers access to lakes and ponds often bought up and posted by non-residents and others.
Many of the 54 people who testified used the same language and nearly identical testimony, undoubtedly a coordinated effort. Their testimony was meant to scare those that hike and recreate on public trails.
First, hunting is one of the safest outdoor recreational activities in Maine. In addition, there is a state law that makes firearm discharge illegal 300 feet on either side of any public, marked hiking trail and another that bans the discharge of firearms within 300 feet of any building — hunting is already banned on these public, marked trails.
Also, many trails in southern Maine, where these same anti-hunting animal rights activists recreate are within Municipal Urban Compacts areas – where, again, no discharge is allowed.
Although these individuals have every right to express their opinions, I would caution them to be careful what they ask for. The Land for Maine’s Future program needs support from skeptical Republicans and rural Democrats to sustain a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate. Banning hunting, fishing and trapping on the program’s public property would destroy decades of hard work and compromise — and at the same time end one of the most effective and popular conservation programs in the history of this state.
There is more than enough space for hunters, hikers, snowmobilers, birdwatchers and others to enjoy these incredible places now available to all of us thanks to Land for Maine’s Future.
David Trahan of Waldoboro, a former state legislator, is executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.
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Gun Debate should be more about safety – David Trahan
January 28, 2019
What is “gun safety”? For many Mainers, like me, that live “gun safety” every day, it means teaching the responsible and safe use of firearms and acting responsibly when you use and store a firearm to insure it is never used in a way that would bring undue harm to another.
In recent years though, that phrase has become a political term for gun control advocates to hide a much more aggressive agenda and, in a sense, hijack the work of thousands of firearm instructors and law-abiding gun owners across the state. If you Google the term “gun safety,” you will find hundreds of stories from in and out of Maine where “gun safety” is used to identify groups that want to pass numerous aggressive gun control measures. Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Executive Director David Trahan, shown in 2011 at his Augusta headquarters. Portland Press Herald file photo by Gabe Souza.
When you blend that fact with the numerous pro-gun control newspaper editorials that focus on the availability of guns and the need for tougher regulations, the resulting debate has become all about gun control.
As a result of this one-dimensional debate, gun owners and gun control advocates have dug in for a long and nasty fight. To illustrate, I am reminded of the famous Second Amendment rallying cry from the late actor Charlton Heston, as he held a rifle in one hand above his head and with a clenched fist exclaimed, “out of my cold dead hands.”
On the other side, popular Maine author Stephen King dismissed gun owner rights in this famous quote, “How many have to die before we will give up these dangerous toys?”
Instead of fighting, perhaps it is time to tone down the rhetoric and look at real gun safety ideas that we all might agree on. In a series of columns, I will share some of the knowledge I have accumulated as a state legislator and gun owner. I will offer a number of gun safety ideas that, when combined, would save lives.
I will cover the safe storage of firearms first, then domestic violence, school security and finally education. I hope people will read these columns for what they are — a sincere attempt to make our communities safer and start the gun safety debate down a more productive path.
For years, gun locks have been promoted as a cheap way to make firearms safe. Unfortunately, my experience is that thousands of gun locks are used a few times and then are either discarded, end up in back of a drawer with spare batteries and broken flashlights, or are tossed out altogether. Yes, some people use them, but their effectiveness is limited.
I am not advocating for anyone to stop distributing gun locks. Instead, I’m asking for Maine people and the Legislature to consider making all firearm safety equipment more accessible through incentives.
At my request, Rep. Patrick Corey, R-Windham, has introduced legislation to create a new tax credit of up to $250 and a sales tax exemption for the purchase of gun safes, lock boxes and other firearm safety equipment.
Most firearm owners have more than one firearm; many have a dozen or more. Wouldn’t it make more sense to own a gun safe capable of securing all the firearms in a home than trying to maintain a gun lock and key for every gun?
In addition to gun safes, handgun lock box technology allows handgun owners to purchase safes with complex locking mechanisms such as fingerprint recognition and computer passwords. Higher-end gun safes and lock boxes are almost impossible for young kids to access. Like anything though, the better built the more expensive. Fortunately, with the right planning and education this hurdle can be overcome.
Most people are unaware of the financial incentives available to groups and individuals that are likely to own firearms. For example, members of organizations like the Sportman’s Alliance of Maine, Maine Professional Guides, Inland Fisheries & Wildlife employees, and veterans can receive membership discounts on outdoor gear, including gun safety equipment, at several Maine retailers. The member discounts range from 10 to 25 percent, depending on the retailer.
Using a mid-range Liberty brand 24-gun safe priced at $929.99 as an example, a new $250 tax credit, sales tax exemption and a 25 percent discount would allow gun owners to purchase a gun safe for $396. For those that don’t belong to one of these groups, the price still drops, but only to $628.85.
In addition to these savings, the legislation could be amended to establish a separate fund seeded by private and public sources to provide sliding scale grants to lower income families. In addition, there are safes on the market that range from $300-$500.
Such a plan would need a corresponding public education campaign that I will address later, but expanding access to devices that promote the safe and responsible storage of firearms should bring all Maine people together.
David Trahan of Waldoboro, a former state legislator, is executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of that organization.
© 2019
Rather than have another fight over firearms, let’s concentrate on opening Maine businesses safely.