Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Question 2 on the November ballot proposes creating a new path to temporarily confiscate firearms from dangerous people, but the debate over the proposal centers on whether an older, similar law crafted by a prominent gun rights group and Gov. Janet Mills six years ago is enough.
Proponents of Question 2 argue that the existing law — often referred to as Maine’s yellow flag law — is a failed experiment that was not used to stop a gunman in Lewiston from killing 18 people and injuring and traumatizing countless others in 2023 despite warnings about his deteriorating mental health. It was the worst mass shooting in state history and one of the most deadly in the U.S. that year.
Question 2 opponents counter that Maine’s law, rarely used before Lewiston, has seen an explosion in utilization by police since then, preventing suicides and other gun deaths.
Question 2 asks voters: “Do you want to allow courts to temporarily prohibit a person from having dangerous weapons if law enforcement, family, or household members show that the person poses a significant danger of causing physical injury to themselves or others?”
Election day is Nov. 4, 2025.
Read more election coverage at mainepublic.org/yourvote.
Video host and producer: Esta Pratt-Kielley / Maine Public
Reporting and analysis: Steve Mistler / Maine Public
Videographer: Tulley Hescock / Maine Public
Question 2 on the November ballot proposes creating a new path to temporarily confiscate firearms from dangerous people, but the debate over the proposal centers on whether an older, similar law crafted by a prominent gun rights group and Gov. Janet Mills six years ago is enough.
Proponents of Question 2 argue that the existing law — often referred to as Maine’s yellow flag law — is a failed experiment that was not used to stop a gunman in Lewiston from killing 18 people and injuring and traumatizing countless others in 2023 despite warnings about his deteriorating mental health. It was the worst mass shooting in state history and one of the most deadly in the U.S. that year.
Question 2 opponents counter that Maine’s law, rarely used before Lewiston, has seen an explosion in utilization by police since then, preventing suicides and other gun deaths.
Question 2 asks voters: “Do you want to allow courts to temporarily prohibit a person from having dangerous weapons if law enforcement, family, or household members show that the person poses a significant danger of causing physical injury to themselves or others?”
Election day is Nov. 4, 2025.
Read more election coverage at mainepublic.org/yourvote.
Video host and producer: Esta Pratt-Kielley / Maine Public
Reporting and analysis: Steve Mistler / Maine Public
Videographer: Tulley Hescock / Maine Public
