Maine shootings: Maine Democrat changes stance on weapon control

One of the few remaining congressmen from the Democratic party who did not support strict gun control laws has suddenly changed his mind after a mass shooting happened in his area in Maine.

Jared Golden, 41, didn’t support a ban on semi-automatic weapons until a gunman killed 18 people in his hometown of Lewiston on Wednesday.

The Marine Corps veteran admits that his earlier position was not successful.

He is a politician who represents a mostly rural area that supported Donald Trump in two elections.

The congressman, who was in his third term, won the election in 2018 and helped the Democrats gain control of the district.

Since he arrived in Congress, he has gone against his own political party by voting against a few measures related to controlling guns.

He was one of just five Democratic representatives who disagreed with a suggestion to forbid assault-style guns, which the House approved in 2022. It did not pass as a law.

“I do not agree or back any version of that,” Mr. Golden stated at that moment.

But on Thursday, Mr. Golden said that the shooting in Lewiston made him think again.

“He said at a news conference on Thursday that it is now time for me to accept blame for this mistake. ”

That’s why I’m asking the United States Congress to make a law to stop people from having assault rifles like the one the person used to do the mass killings in my hometown.
He said sorry for disagreeing with gun control before.

Mr Golden expressed his intention to collaborate with any coworker in order to complete this task before his time in Congress comes to an end.

Susan Collins, a Republican Senator from Maine who is not extreme in her views, wants to put limitations on high-capacity magazines.

US President Joe Biden asked Republican lawmakers, who are in charge of the House of Representatives, to do their job and keep the American people safe.

But even when Democrats controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate during the first two years of President Biden’s term, they were unable to pass this particular law.

When Biden was the leader of a Senate committee, he was in charge of trying to limit the use of semi-automatic rifles in 1994. However, this restriction was only in place for ten years and people still argue about whether it actually worked.

In 2019, Maine made a rule called the “yellow flag” law. This law lets police officers ask to take away someone’s guns if they think that person might hurt themselves or others.

According to the rule, the person needs to get a medical check-up and be put under protection.

It is not as broad as “red flag” laws. The “red flag” laws let family members, teachers, and others do the same thing.

It is not known if anyone asked for something official about the person who did the shooting on Wednesday. The police and family members say that this person had serious mental health problems.

The Portland Press Herald, which is a newspaper in our area, shared that the yellow flag law has been used only 58 times over the course of three years.

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects the right of Americans to own guns.