OPINION: QUESTION #3
Too much has been said lately about this November's referendum Question #3 (background checks) for me to remain silent. I try very hard to keep politics, of any kind, and my elected position separate. However, this week much has been made of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association endorsing Question #3, to include suggestions that endorsement represents the positions of "Maine's police chiefs and Sheriffs." This is simply not true.
I studied the language of this initiative some time ago when it was first released. It is a mess and reaches way too far. It would needlessly damage hundreds of years of tradition and would do nothing to make us safer. If this was law right now I would have been in violation three times this month and close to a dozen times this year alone. That is just from borrowing and loaning firearms with friends. A couple of these transfers were with some of the most liberal leaning friends I know.
So, this is not a partisan issue. It is not Democrats vs. Republicans and we should not be tricked into believing it is. With this question we are ALL being asked to give up freedom, culture and tradition in exchange for nothing.
The problems with this inititiative will not be "fixed" by the legislature after it passes, as some suggest. That is not how the system works. I also believe it is unenforceable without all fifty states or the federal government mandating gun registration. This is a bad solution looking for a problem that does not exist in Maine.
A small number of police chiefs and at least one Sheriff that I know do support this initiative. I respect and defend their right to have that opinion, while I also strongly disagree with them. If you feel differently than I do about this issue I don't hate you, I don't think you are evil and I don't think you should move away. There is too much of that foolishness already. I do, however, hope that everyone who plans to vote this November will take the time to read the full text of this initiaitve so they truly understand the impact of their vote.
I will be voting NO on Question #3.
This post is not here to spark visceral debate, to invite (or tolerate) rude comments about one side of this issue or the other or to try to tell anyone how they should vote. I posted my opinion because I feel I have a perspective on this issue others could find useful in making an informed decision.
Read the complete article: Sheriff Darrell Crandall
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