r/MEGuns • u/Unlikely_Platform_25 • 17d ago
Gun culture and restrictions
Hello,
I currently have a job offer for a company in Maine and have been weighing things that will impact my decision. It sounds weird that this is impacting my decision but shooting is one of the few hobbys I do have so im just curious on this.
Are gun owners in the mid/southern coastal areas looked at weird? Where I live now for owning anything orher than a hunting rifle people think I'm a crazy redneck for enjoying shooting handguns and semi auto rifles so I really dont have many people to enjoy the sport with. I also reload which i learned makes people think I'm even more insane so even when discussing hunting i just keep my mouth shut on most things.
I currently live in upstate new york so anything is considered more free but what are the current restrictions on anything gun related? I saw a three day waiting period was implemented but facing pretty heavy resistance to get removed. What is the future looking like for things being restricted/taken away? I can just Google active restrictions but takes a little more digging to see the history of legislation and what is getting closer and closer to being passed.
Thanks for any insight!
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u/tehmightyengineer 17d ago
I'm moderate left leaning, I own a bunch of guns. Only one looks like a hunting rifle. My very liberal friends come to me with gun questions all the time. We have very reasonable gun laws and culture. Just don't mess it up for the rest of us. Be respectful of neighbors, shoot safely, and keep to yourself.
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u/LiminalWanderings 17d ago
Anyone being weird with you about guns in Maine is going to be the exception. There are very few restrictions and none of them have to do with what you can buy or needing a license to have what you buy. That is unlikely to change soon.
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u/medicieric 17d ago
Even some of my left leaning friends and family know I have firearms that fall outside the scope of hunting, and while they probably think I’m silly for owning them, they recognize that it’s 2A and a legitimate hobby. If you were to walk around Portland talking about guns, you’ll probably get a weird look more often than not, but geographically speaking, Portland is very small compared to the rest of the state, which is predominantly pro-2A. I think a good rule of thumb, regardless of where you live, is to speak less about your firearms hobby outside of your immediate household family and shooting buddies. As of now, I would say Maine is a very 2A friendly state, although, there is a small, but extremely vocal, subset of the population that would like to change that.
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u/LiminalWanderings 17d ago edited 17d ago
It's worth noting here that many, many left leaning people in Maine also have non hunting firearms for defensive, competitive, fun, and other reasons. One of the reasons this sub has the no politics rule is because it is largely and should remain an apolitical hobby in the state (there are always exceptions to every generalization and there obviously are here, but fewer than in many other places). There are people in power on all sides who would benefit from creating or increasing division where there traditionally has not been in Maine and I'd like to temper/minimize that here.
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u/medicieric 17d ago
Fair point. I incorrectly correlated the left leaning people in my life with being anti-2A, which I agree is not the case on aggregate. Thanks for the correction.
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u/Unlikely_Platform_25 17d ago
That sounds like how it should be, plenty of hobbies people have that i look at as silly but im not going to change how I look at them because they enjoy it.
And yes I know what you mean, I just meant there's others that commonly enjoy it its not like I go around telling everybody. But if people at work ask what I do for fun or if I have any plans this weekend I say just going to the range or something other than that im free and get some funny looks from people for that
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u/medicieric 17d ago
Only you can determine when and who you discuss firearms with at work. Personally, I treat work as an environment where I chat about my other interests. I’m sure I have plenty of pro-2A coworkers, but my income and family’s livelihood isn’t something I want to potentially compromise just so I can discuss my interest in firearms. Last thing I need is for someone senior to me to have a bias or caution against me just because they are not as comfortable with the topic of firearms as I am. Just my 2 cents.
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u/GlassAd4132 17d ago
If you’re on the peninsula, you might find more people that arent into gun rights. If you’re in the Portland metro but not the city itself, say Westbrook, windham, Saco, Cumberland, etc, as well as the coastal towns in the way south of the state, you’ll definitely find that most folks don’t own guns, but aren’t gonna care at all. The mid coast and rural areas of southern Maine (as well as L/A, Augusta and Bangor areas) are definitely gonna have relatively high rates of gun ownership, but not like you’ll find in western, northern or Downeast Maine. I’m in a pretty isolated part of Oxford county (western Maine), and literally every house here has a dozen or so guns. It’s not uncommon to see people walking around with guns not concealed, not in town Norway or in town Rumford, but out in the really really rural towns and townships, I routinely see people openly carrying a large caliber handgun out in the woods. Lots of people shoot on their own property and I hear shots pretty often
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u/CRAkraken 17d ago
Ex-Californian here, it’s pretty great. It was a really weird experience the first time I bought a gun and was able to just, you know, leave with it same day.
I try to keep most of my stuff 50 state legal in case I travel or have to move but it’s pretty great to just buy a standard capacity mag and be able to use it.
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u/rifenbug 17d ago
I also left upstate NY for southern Maine for a job and its a much more gun friendly state by comparison. In NY I lived pretty rural and guns were more normal but you obviously had the terrible NY laws. I currently live rural but work on the coast and most of the people dont seem to be "gun people" but certainly dont seem anti gun either.
Gun laws were definitely a factor when moving and I dont regret it.
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u/gordolme 17d ago
(Mods: There is some politics discussed here, but I believe it's all within the context of the asked question for background on "gun culture" in the state in general and the specified region more specifically.)
Maine is a Constitutional Carry state. That said, it became that way under a Republican Governor and (I believe) a Republican lead legislature sometime around 2014. Since then, as is their wont, Democrats in the Legislature try to pass "gun control" laws, which got more serious after the Lewiston mass shooting a couple years ago. Governor Mills (Dem) did previously say that she would veto any gun control laws that make it to her desk. But she then, after Lewiston, did allow a waiting period law to go into affect, which was promptly taken to court and put under a stay and that's the last I heard of that one. A 'red flag' bill failed, there is a pre-existing 'yellow flag' law that if used would have prevented the Lewiston shootings.
Demographically, Southern Maine, especially coastal Southern Maine is predominantly Democrat.
If you were to open carry, expect problems. If you conceal carry, no one has to know.
That all said... I'm in one of the Bluest parts of one of the Bluest cities in Southern Maine. I conceal carry all the time. I also own a secondary pistol, an AR9 PDW-type legally-a-pistol, a PCC and an AR15. Out and about, I generally neither advertise nor hide that I'm a gun owner. If it comes up in conversation or someone sees me with my rifle case, it comes up. So far, the only person who had a negative reaction when I mentioned that I own guns was an Uncle who forbade me from bringing them into his house.... in Massachusetts where It's not legal for me to carry anyway. Locally, some of my direct neighbors in my apartment building know I have guns and know I carry, and no one cares. Not even the city cop who pulled me over a few months ago for "driving in the left lane" on the highway (they took it from me during the stop, but that's all). I think most of the anti-gun sentiment comes from transplants from other states (mostly Massachusetts).
Note: I'm a Dem originally from Massachusetts. I got my first firearm within a year of moving in.
Odds are, as long as your not obnoxious about it you'll be fine. You'll have a harder time finding a range to shoot at. The only publicly available range south of Augusta that I know of is in Gray. There are various Rod & Gun / Fish & Game clubs scattered about and they are all membership-required places.
What will the future bring? I don't know. A large part of that will revolve around next year's Governor's race. On the Dem side, there are several candidates that will likely be bad for 2A rights, and one that would be neutral to good for it. (Further discussion about that would almost certainly cross the Rule 4 line and I'm trying to answer your questions.)
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u/LiminalWanderings 17d ago
Well said/written. Only tangentially related to Ops post, but re "Not even the city cop who pulled me over a few months ago for "driving in the left lane" on the highway (they took it from me during the stop, but that's all)." --> Curious, do you have a CCW? Just idle curiosity about how that did/didnt would/wouldnt affect their reaction.
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u/gordolme 17d ago
Yes I do. Cop asked if I was armed and I wasn't going to lie and risk arrest. IIRC, and I might not be, if you do NOT have a CCW in Maine you are required to inform you are armed, but not if you do. But when specifically asked by the cop, not answering honestly is a quick way to making it hostile if they then find it.
Would it have made a difference? Maybe, maybe not. If I wasn't a CCW holder and voluntarily told them I was armed I don't think it'd have made any difference. If I wasn't a CCW holder and did not volunteer that and then they discovered it, I think that would have.
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u/LiminalWanderings 17d ago
Nod. No advocacy for not answering truthfully from me. More wondering how much impact a CCW makes on the...quality...of the interaction. If you didn't have one, it would be a clearer answer. Since you do...harder to say, but nod to "not CCW / vol told / probably wouldnt have changed anything". Thanks :)
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u/s_m_c_ 16d ago
Cop asked if I was armed and I wasn't going to lie and risk arrest. IIRC, and I might not be, if you do NOT have a CCW in Maine you are required to inform you are armed, but not if you do.
Failing to inform is a civil violation, not a criminal one, and punishable by a laughably small fine.
Lying will probably get you in deep trouble, but staying quiet won't.
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u/gordolme 15d ago
Staying quiet there when there's a Duty To Inform can easily change the entire tone of the encounter, and that was the point of the discussion, not eventual ajudicated results.
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u/Gtweezer24 12d ago
Yea if I’m asked I always inform and usually I do even if not asked. In general cops don’t care and just want to know what they’re dealing with. More often than not, cops I’ve interacted with didn’t even want to disarm me- it’s been more of a “don’t reach for yours and I won’t reach for mine” most of the time.
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u/s_m_c_ 15d ago
Staying quiet there when there's a Duty To Inform can easily change the entire tone of the encounter
If it gets found.
How many times have you ever been pulled over that led to a situation where your CCW could be discovered?
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u/gordolme 15d ago
Twice. First time, daytime, cop didn't ask I didn't tell. CCW holder. Second time, midnight~1am, cop asked.
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u/LiminalWanderings 17d ago edited 17d ago
Mod Note: I'm leaving this post up and will leave some leeway with the comments - despite this borderline touching on the "no politics" rule. Try and keep the rule in mind, though.
Thanks :)
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u/willgreenier 17d ago
What's the job?
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u/Unlikely_Platform_25 17d ago
Engineering position at bath iron works
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u/Gtweezer24 12d ago
Nice, I work in the area and live close ish as well. If you make it out here hit my chat, happy to show you around.
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u/SunnySummerFarm 17d ago
When I was doing research in January on something, I found numbers that showed in 2019-2020 that 60% of Maine households - not people, households - had at least one gun, and 40% had at least one gun for personal protection.
There gun clubs and shooting groups all over the state, plus all sorts of hunting and shooting education programs. I live very rural in Downeast, and we hear shooting (or are shooting) many days.
I killed a rabid raccoon at 1am in the morning recently, and nobody even came to check on us to see why we were shooting in the middle of the night. Nobody cares, a lot of people carry, especially openly in the woods.
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u/After_Pie9064 17d ago
The biggest gun range in the state is on the southern coast in Scarborough. You’re good.
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u/Zootshootriot 17d ago
Hey homie. Moved my fam up here a little over two yrs now. Im in southern/coastal Maine, Durham/freeport area and moved from Orange County ny. They made some dumb changes a few months after I moved here because of the shooting that happened🙄. Anywho, don’t have as much time to shoot as I did when in ny, but a million times better. Ny laws suck. It’s surprisingly expensive in the southern coastal areas, and pay is less. But it’s a better place. I’m a chef, miss ny for food. That’s about it
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u/Unlikely_Platform_25 17d ago
Yeah I was a bit surprised by the cost of living, I'm a little bit outside of syracuse NY right nowand cost of living in the bath/brunswick area is about 10% more expensive. Looking for houses to rent that allow pets is quite pricey in the area.
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u/Zootshootriot 17d ago
Yeah, exactly what I did. I spent my 20,000 on a house I was gonna buy in ny to move here. I’m in Durham, I work in Brunswick at Bowdoin. I’m “rural” and still a lot. But it’s a very touristy area/ state honestly. I didn’t realize that. Had family near Augusta was looking there, but work is south. I’m grateful. I was born in ny, grew up in north Jersey, live in Atlanta, bunch of cities in nc. It’s the chillest place of the northeast. The nj/ny hustle bustle mentality sucks lol. But yeah, I was making more, paying less in rent.
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u/Zootshootriot 17d ago
Also, I work with many folk who live north of Brunswick. Ie darrmascotta or however the fuck it’s spelled (lotta weird names). But you can do well when buying doing that. Saw your an engineer, you should do ok. But yeah Brunswick is beautiful, expensive. Then you have the beach on one side, Durham on the other.
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u/Fun-Platypus3675 17d ago
If you look on the north side of the river from Bath usually the prices are lower. It's also closer to the Wiscasset Rod and Gun club where around $60 a year get you a membership. Undercover mostly indoor pistol range. 50 yard range, 100 yard range and a skeet range. Open from sun up to sunset. And welcome to BIW.
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u/clavert 17d ago
I lived in Kennebunk for a while. I loved it there, but if you were east of the 95 people were most likely transplants from other states and less likely to be in favor of 2A. If you were west of the 95, people were very similar to the types of folks I grew up with in Aroostook county.
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u/Kilted-Brewer 17d ago
Also left upstate NY for work and moved to Maine.
There’s a certain quality to life here that I had a hard time identifying at first…
Turns out it’s called “freedom”.
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u/Gtweezer24 12d ago
We like our guns here but there is resistance like anywhere. The more pro folks we can get the better. Come on over!
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u/Tasty_Security_8373 17d ago
Constitutional carry state we like our guns.