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We all know that there are places in the world where simply using “bad language” can get you in trouble with the law. But it’s a pretty good bet most Americans don’t think theirs is one of those countries.
However, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has found out about this. Last December, a video clip showing Maine Governor Janet Mills making gun comments elicited this three-word reaction from the group, which they posted on X: “F**k you. No.”
That was their response to Mills saying there was a possibility “assault weapons” would be banned in the wake of the Lewiston shooting. And the reaction from the governor’s office to the FPC post was to “refer” FPC to the police officer responsible for Mills’s security.
The implication is clear – the insult was taken as a threat. Unfortunately, there is no logic to this “logic,” resulting in Mills attracting more criticism that can be taken as an insult, though not as pointed – one report is now calling the governor “thin-skinned.”
The right to bear arms is a constitutional right in the US (thanks to the Second Amendment, and explicitly legally cemented through the Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller). Yet this has not stopped the issue from remaining one of the many hot-button ones to the point where elected officials attempt to involve the police just to stop criticism.
And, according to the Maine Wire, which found out about the governor’s office reaction and behavior through FOIA request documents – not only FPC, but this news outlet as well were “flagged” in the “referral” to the police.
The Maine Wire is conservative-leaning media, while Mills is a Democrat. And so the outlet’s editor-in-chief Steve Robinson writes that past emails from Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’s deputy attempted to get the website investigated for what he says was “a cartoon graphic of an election ballot posted to social media.”
Last week, FPC President Brandon Combs sent a letter to Mills and Bellows, invoking the First Amendment as well, to say:
“You must surely be aware that our X post responding to Governor Mills’s discussion of an immoral ban on protected arms is clearly protected speech as there is absolutely no uncertainty about the law regarding this form of speech. If not, some education is in order. Naked authoritarianism, such as efforts to chill free speech, is not acceptable to FPC and our members. We strongly encourage you to learn more about protected speech and arms.”
Reason Magazine sums this, and many similar incidents, as “a flurry of cases across the country involving government officials attempting to misuse the legal system and regulatory power to punish political opponents.”
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