Maine's New Red Flag Law Takes Effect, Early Cases Emerge Statewide

Five days after Maine's red flag law took effect, a judge in Oxford County ordered a 60-year-old Paris man to surrender all his weapons. He had none to give up.

The February 26 filing in Oxford Superior Court is the likely first use of Maine's Extreme Risk Protection Order law, which went into effect February 21 after more than 62.5% of voters approved it as Question 2 in the November 2025 election. Paris police requested the order, citing the man as a threat to his community. The judge granted it the same day.

The case immediately drew a constitutional challenge. The man's attorney, Mark Gillis, filed a motion to dismiss arguing the red flag law creates a "second class" of citizens and strips protections embedded in Maine's existing yellow flag law, including the requirement for a mental health evaluation before weapons can be removed. Laura Whitcomb of Gun Rights of Maine echoed that critique: "All this law does is check a box for the gun control lobby and violate the rights of Mainers."

The distinction between the two laws sits at the center of the debate. The yellow flag law requires police involvement and a mental health evaluation. The red flag law allows family members or law enforcement to petition a court directly, bypassing both requirements. An emergency order under the new law can last up to two weeks before a full ruling is issued.

No county carries more historical weight in that debate than Sagadahoc. Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin, a town policed by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office, carried out the October 2023 Lewiston mass shooting, the deadliest in Maine history. An independent commission appointed by Governor Janet Mills found the Sheriff's Office had ample evidence to invoke the yellow flag law on Card before the killings but did not act. Before the massacre, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office had no documented history of ever filing a weapon restriction order, making it one of more than 100 departments statewide that had never used the law.

Sheriff Joel Merry says his deputies will likely continue reaching for the yellow flag process out of familiarity. "If there's any indication whatsoever that the person is a threat to themselves or someone else, initiate the process," Merry said as the new law took effect. "Calls are going to come in. We're going to respond. Make an assessment of the person as to whether or not they need to be taken into protective custody."

Supporters of the red flag law point to a stark figure: between 89 and 92 percent of Maine's gun deaths are suicides. Penobscot resident David Jolly, who testified in favor of the legislation, argued the yellow flag law's evaluation requirement was a barrier rather than a safeguard. "These evaluations can be difficult and time consuming to get," Jolly said. "Most acts of violence are preceded by warning signs observable to others."

Statewide, more than 1,000 yellow flag petitions were filed between 2020 and August 2025, the vast majority after the Lewiston shooting. Maine now joins 21 states, including four in New England, with an extreme risk protection order law on the books.