David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, spoke Sunday, July 21, at a meeting of the Wilton Fish and Game Association, outlining a challenge to recently passed gun control legislation. SUBMITTED PHOTO

WILTON — Saying, “The government failed us,” David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, spoke to members of the Wilton Fish and Game Association, explaining flaws in recently passed gun control legislation and outlining a legal challenge to the 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases due to go into effect soon.

Trahan addressed club members at a regular meeting in Wilton on July 21. Trahan has been executive director of SAM for 13 years. The organization has more than 8,000 members and partners with 70 fish and game clubs across the state, representing another 30,000 members. SAM’s goals are to support hunting and fishing activities in Maine and to defend the right to keep, use, and bear arms.

Trahan said that SAM has joined forces with Gun Owners of Maine, the National Rifle Association, and an as yet unnamed fourth organization to raise money and mount a legal challenge to the 72-hour waiting period. “This is blatantly unconstitutional, and we will win,” he said.

Noting that instant background checks are already required for gun purchases, he said the waiting period does not have a “legitimate purpose.”

Listing other rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, he said, “There is no right that I know of that you have to wait to exercise.”

Trahan, who spent some 25 years serving in the Maine state legislature as a representative and a senator, described the process by which the new law passed as a “process that was disingenuous.” He decried the methods for manipulating votes in the House and the use of a rare rule of vote pairing in the Senate. He also criticized short public hearing periods and rules that severely limited comments on the bill.

“The legislature needs to change its processes,” he said.

He criticized the bill as not clearly delineating even basic issues such as when the 72-hour period is to begin or who would enforce the law.

Trahan and SAM have a long history of working closely with government officials at both the state and national level to craft legislation relating to outdoor sports and firearms, including the so-called “yellow flag law” designed to give law enforcement tools to take firearms from individuals who might be a danger to themselves or others, but only through due process. Trahan said that law has been used successfully 350 times, mostly in cases of potentially suicidal individuals.

He decried the failure to use the law in the case of Robert Card and the mass shooting in Lewiston. “The military failed to report Robert Card’s condition to people in the state,” he said.

Trahan said the 72-hour waiting period law will have a chilling effect on popular gun shows across the state and on legal firearms dealers who cater to out-of-state hunters.

He blamed political pressure from billionaires outside of Maine who have taken an increasingly larger role in the state’s politics. “We are on the cusp of losing our control over our policies,” he said, describing how billionaires such as Michael Bloomberg fund multi-million-dollar media campaigns to promote an anti-gun agenda in the state. “Our elections have been hijacked by out-of-state money.”

That contrasts with the grassroots effort SAM is spearheading to raise money for the legal challenge against the 72-hour waiting period. Trahan says the lawsuit will likely be filed in the next three weeks and will ask for an injunction to stop the law while its legality is adjudicated. The law is slated to go into effect August 8. Trahan said the legal challenge is promising and he foresees a “path all the way to the Supreme Court,” which could set national precedents.

Responding to questions from Wilton Fish and Game members, Trahan urged a number of alternatives to the 72-hour waiting period, including better mental health services for rural areas and efforts to include juvenile criminal and mental health records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). He is also working with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins to craft legislation that requires better mental health services and reporting for all branches of the military.

The Wilton Fish and Game Association is a non-partisan, non-profit organization devoted to promoting outdoors sports to the local community. From time to time the organization invites speakers to address topics of interest to its membership. To learn more about the Wilton Fish and Game Association, look for them on Facebook or visit http://www.wiltonfishandgame.com.

To learn more about the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, visit http://www.samofmaine.org.