Last Friday at his Brunswick home, U.S. Senator Angus King met with Dave Trahan of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Don Kleiner of the Maine Professional Guides Association, and me to talk about guns. Joining us for the 1 ½ hour discussion were two of Angus’s top staff, Kay Rand and Toby McGrath.
While the discussion was confidential, I can say I was impressed with the detailed questions Angus asked, and the information and advice that Dave and Don provided. Of course, I offered my thoughts as well. We talked about school security and mental health issues too.
I know that Angus has a good understanding of the gun issues, and trust that he will sort through the bombast and rhetoric to get to the solutions that will address the problem of violence in our society. If this is just about guns, we will have failed.
A POLITICO column by Katie Glueck reported today on remarks Angus made on CBS’s “CBS This Morning.”
“The assault weapon ban is a tough one because it’s hard to define what an assault weapon is,” said Angus. “And if we’re just defining it by what it looks like, that doesn’t do much for me. I’m much more interested in the functionality and whether that’s really a different weapon than my buddies’ semi-automatic hunting rifles.”
Angus called for a comprehensive approach to this problem and expressed interest in mandatory background checks and stronger penalties for people who lie on their background check applications.
“The biggest issue to me is the size of magazines. That’s sort of the common thread that connects a lot of these massacres,” he said.
All of these comments mirror the discussion that Dave, Don, and I had with Angus last week, and give me confidence that he will continue to ask good questions and look for comprehensive solutions to this and other problems.