Golden adds his voice to call for assault weapons ban as shootings reignite national debate

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : Pingree said the political landscape can change quickly and passing laws that didn't seem possible a decade ago can happen if there's public support for change and political will.
45% : But she said a 2004 proposed expansion of that law - up to more than 150 weapons, went too far, was more "cosmetic" and didn't address the "functionality" of the guns, so she voted "no."Collins touted a law that was passed in 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which among its provisions gave states additional mental health funding, boosted crisis and suicide hotlines, and supported states that passed "red flag" or "yellow flag" laws, which are ways for law enforcement to remove guns from people who are having a mental health crisis.
42% : Maine passed a "yellow flag" law, which allows for law enforcement to take away guns when people are having mental health problems, but requires a sign-off from a mental health professional.
36% : AdvertisementAn assault weapons ban was in effect from 1994-2004, but the law was allowed to sunset and Congress has never been able to muster the votes to pass a new ban.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.