Maine Judge Finds Felon Retains Gun Rights Under State Constitution
A 1987 state constitutional amendment broadening the right to bear arms means that even convicted felons may own guns, a judge ruled. Cumberland County Superior Court Justice Stephen L. Perkins on Friday dismissed a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon against Edward Brown of Cumberland. Prosecutors had argued that the amendment's backers did not intend to allow felons to own guns, but the judge said nothing in the amendment indicated such an intent. ``If Maine legislators and citizens wanted to restrict or qualify the right to keep and bear arms, they could have enacted a constitutional provision that contained the desired restrictions,'' Perkins wrote. ``Maine's right to keep and bear arms amendment is the most broad and least restrictive of any of the 43 similar state amendments,'' he wrote. Attorney General James E. Tierney said Saturday that the case would be appealed, adding, ``With all due respect to Justice Perkins, we think he is wrong.'' The Maine constitution used to guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms ``for the common defense.'' In 1986, the Maine Supreme Court upheld a gun violation by focusing on the ``common defense'' phrase. In response, the Legislature enacted a constitutional amendment deleting that language, and voters approved it in November 1987. The amendment declared, ``Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms,and this right shall never be questioned.'' Brown had been accused of criminal threatening in 1988, as well as with illegal possession of a gun. He previously had been convicted under the state's habitual offender law for operating a motor vehicle after his driver's license had been revoked. Perkins denied a motion to dismiss the criminal threatening charge, but threw out the gun possession charge, saying ``there is simply no rational connection'' between Brown's previous conviction and his ownership of a firearm.
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