Maine CWP Training
Regular Member
Oct 14, 2010
It soon will be illegal in South Portland to carry a pellet gun, slingshot or bow and arrow in public.
It will, however, be perfectly legal to carry a handgun in a holster or rifle slung over your shoulder.
Does this make any sense?
The South Portland City Council voted 6-1 last week to ban those far less lethal weapons at the urging of police Chief Edward Googins, who said the move was necessary to protect the community from "those who are acting unreasonably."
Googins, according to the Southern Forecaster newspaper, says the department has received calls about men in masks with guns, likely involved in war games with nonlethal airsoft guns. These are replica weapons that fire plastic pellets.
Which begs the question: How can a person carrying an airsoft gun in a public place be acting unreasonably when a person carrying a Colt .45 is not?
The new ordinance also comes on the heels of several recent open-carry events in Portland. These involved people with guns, but without the masks, simply making the point that they can carry their guns just about anywhere they like.
As we have pointed out in the past, just because you can do something doesn't always mean you should.
It is, indeed, legal for people in Maine to openly carry a gun. And nobody thinks twice about this when they see two hunters walking down a rural road with shotguns over their shoulders.
However, the same two men might cause a considerable panic if they strolled into the food court at the Maine Mall.
READ MORE
It soon will be illegal in South Portland to carry a pellet gun, slingshot or bow and arrow in public.
It will, however, be perfectly legal to carry a handgun in a holster or rifle slung over your shoulder.
Does this make any sense?
The South Portland City Council voted 6-1 last week to ban those far less lethal weapons at the urging of police Chief Edward Googins, who said the move was necessary to protect the community from "those who are acting unreasonably."
Googins, according to the Southern Forecaster newspaper, says the department has received calls about men in masks with guns, likely involved in war games with nonlethal airsoft guns. These are replica weapons that fire plastic pellets.
Which begs the question: How can a person carrying an airsoft gun in a public place be acting unreasonably when a person carrying a Colt .45 is not?
The new ordinance also comes on the heels of several recent open-carry events in Portland. These involved people with guns, but without the masks, simply making the point that they can carry their guns just about anywhere they like.
As we have pointed out in the past, just because you can do something doesn't always mean you should.
It is, indeed, legal for people in Maine to openly carry a gun. And nobody thinks twice about this when they see two hunters walking down a rural road with shotguns over their shoulders.
However, the same two men might cause a considerable panic if they strolled into the food court at the Maine Mall.
READ MORE
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