Brunswick rally honors gun violence victims, pushes safety measures

Free handgun lock boxes, gun-safety materials and a march down Maine Street turned Brunswick Town Mall into a stage for Maine’s gun-violence debate Saturday morning. The annual EverOrange rally drew families, activists and state political figures as advocates pressed Augusta to keep building on the Extreme Risk Protection Order law now in effect.

The gathering was part remembrance, part policy push. Organizers tied the event to the Wear Orange movement, which began after the 2013 killing of Hadiya Pendleton in Chicago and uses orange because it is a hunter-safety color. In Brunswick, the message was local and immediate: if Maine is going to reduce gun deaths, supporters said, it will take more than public statements and memorials.

Arthur Barnard, whose son was killed in the Lewiston mass shooting, gave the rally its most personal moment. His presence connected the Brunswick crowd to one of Maine’s most painful recent tragedies and underscored the argument that gun ownership carries a responsibility to prevent harm. Advocates at the event pressed for stronger prevention measures now, not later, with a focus on safe storage, crisis intervention and public education.

The policy backdrop has already shifted. Maine Gun Safety Coalition says 63% of voters approved Question 2 in November, creating Maine’s Extreme Risk Protection Order system, and the group says that system is now in effect. The coalition, founded in 2000 after the Columbine High School shooting, also says it distributes free cable locks to police departments, sheriffs’ offices, social services agencies, medical facilities and other organizations through a secure-storage effort with the Maine Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

That leaves the next steps largely in implementation, not abstraction. In schools, health systems and law enforcement offices across Brunswick and Sagadahoc County, the practical question is how widely lock boxes, cable locks and warning signs reach families before a crisis. In Augusta, the harder question is whether lawmakers will move beyond the new ERPO framework to broader prevention measures or leave much of the work to local agencies and volunteer groups.

The rally came just days before Maine’s primary election, giving Democratic gubernatorial candidates a chance to speak to voters already engaged on public safety. Troy Jackson, Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah were among the state figures at the Brunswick event, which also was co-hosted with the Maine Pediatricians Association, Maine Providers for Gun Safety, Brunswick Area Indivisible, Harpswell Indivisible and Moms Demand Action.

The political opening is real, but so is the gap between public urgency and what Augusta is likely to do next. Maine’s firearm death toll fell to 171 in 2024 from 195 in 2023, but advocates say the long-term trend remains alarming and that most firearm deaths in the state are suicides. In Brunswick, the rally made clear that the fight now is over whether that warning turns into sustained policy, or only another annual show of grief.