NEWS CENTER Maine broadcasted its #ListenToME forum on high school violence Thursday night. We brought together eleven students from across Maine to share their concerns in the wake of the Parkman, Florida school massacre. They talked about growing up in an era of multiple mass shootings in schools across the country. They talked about some other difficult topics ranging from gun violence to arming teacher to the state mental health services in our schools. Our goal was just to listen to what the people most affected by school violence had to say.
► RELATED | #ListenToME | Giving Maine teens a voice
The recurring messages we received from this group of students —they feel the government is letting them down.
We decided that message was so clear; we needed to get answers from Maine's Congressional delegation. These students want action from our lawmakers, action that will keep them safe. We took these concerns to Washington, D.C. to present those concerns to our Maine leaders and find out what each is willing to try to do.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine) all watched excerpts from our #ListenToMe panel discussion.
Sen. Collins says "Listening to them is very moving. It's really disturbs me that these Maine students are clearly fearful. It wasn't like that when I was growing up in Maine."
Rep. Poliquin praised the students. "It is so important to make sure they do speak up. I will support, and have supported their First Amendment right to speak up, to speak freely. At the same time, I'm going to support all of our constitutional rights, including the rights of tens of thousands of safe and peaceful and law-abiding gun owners in our state."
Sen. King says the students are "telling it straight," and echoed the comments of MDI Junior Nayan Sawyer about expanding background checks. "I remember saying that exact thing in 2013 to one of my colleagues when we were talking about improving the background check, and I said 'give me an argument why we shouldn't do this.' And I've never heard one myself."
Rep. Pingree finds their stories "heartbreaking," but adds "I feel so hopeful with these kids speaking up, speaking from the heart. They are articulate, they are intelligent...It's going to be their world. And I'm just hopeful they can help us do the right thing."
She adds "I hope there are big groups of kids like that in every district around the country who are meeting with their member of Congress and saying, 'we really counting on you.'"
The members of Maine's Congressional delegation believe that unlike past crises, this moment of national attention to the problem of gun violence might actually produce some solutions.
Collins and King are urging support for Collins' "No Fly, No Buy" legislation. "I was shocked after the shooting which killed 49 people in Orlando at the nightclub that action was not taken after that" Collins says. "That's when I first introduced the bipartisan bill that I called 'No fly, no buy.' Because that person was on the no-fly watchlist. That means he could not board a plane, and yet he could buy a gun. That's a real problem."
Pingree was on the House floor this week offering support to a new assault weapons ban, something she has pushed for frequently during her decade in Congress. But she knows even getting a debate on such a bill is a challenge.
"The hard thing for many people to understand is that we just want to have a debate. Leadership in Congress gets to decide which bills come to the floor. Maybe some of those bills wouldn't pass. But we have to have a real debate. We have to get up on the floor and state our opinions."
All four members would ban bump stocks for making a semi-automatic weapon fully automatic, and they think arming teachers is a bad idea.
Collins, Pingree, and King say they want to strengthen background checks, raise the age limit for buying some weapons, and close loopholes for gun shows and online sales.
Rep Pingree is a strong supporter of banning assault-style weapons such as the AR-15.
Sen. Collins is open to banning some weapons. She says "I supported the ban that was in effect between 1994 and 2004. It covered 19 military-style assault weapons, including the AR 15. In 2004 when it came up for renewal for another ten years, I voted yes."
Collins opposed subsequent assault weapons ban proposals because they were too broad.
Sen. King says banning a particular type of gun is tricky. "I'm reluctant to say we should ban a gun because of how it looks. The problem is, and this happened when there was a ban for ten years in the late 90s, they just make them look different, and slip out from under the definition. I'm for what works."
King says it is more important to look at how a weapon functions, and focus on things such as high capacity magazines.
"In Maine for example, you can't have more than five bullets in your magazine when you go hunting. People have said, 'well we'd like to use them at shooting ranges.' So let the shooting range have the high-capacity magazine."
Rep. Poliquin says he wants to see specific legislation before he could commit to anything such as a weapons ban, or even raising the age limit for purchasers.
After previous school shootings, legislative changes failed, and calls for action eventually faded.
All of the members of the Congressional delegation say they think this time will be different, in large measure because students in Maine and across the country are raising their voices, and insist they won't stop until something changes.