The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has “abruptly canceled” a class on cleaning and maintaining AR rifles “after complaints that it was inappropriate in the wake of the mass shooting in Lewiston,” the Portland Press Herald reports.
“A spokesperson for the agency said the class was canceled less than 24 hours after it had been announced,” the report continues. “The agency received a flurry of complaints after promoting the class online.”
What one report calls a “flurry,” another quantifies as contacts initiated by “a dozen of the more than 400,000 people who received the email notification of the gun classes. Although a few people were upset that the department offered the class, several called to complain that the class was canceled,” the Bangor Daily News clarifies, quoting an Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesman.
While it’s clear IFW bureaucrats are bowing to political pressure in a state where dominant prohibitionists are primed to ban “ARs,” that has not happened yet. What’s not clear is who has statutory authority to make the call to cancel the class based on the reasons given to the public, and Maine Public notes, “A spokesperson for Inland Fisheries and Wildlife declined comment.”
That leaves a potential conflict, as duly enacted existing law, which mandates “The commissioner shall establish a program for training individuals in the safe handling of firearms,” does not add a proviso saying “except for firearms that Democrats don’t like.” And the truth about that is all of them, as the Fudds will find out when they’re no longer needed.
It’s a concern worth exploring and to that end, Maine’s Freedom of Access Act and the official list of FOAA contacts may help provide some answers. To that end, this correspondent has prepared a request to try and obtain:
- IDFW’s notification email, reportedly sent to approximately 400,000 recipients, announcing the class.
- All communications received, either for or against cancelling the classes.
- Identities of requesting citizens, or, if disallowed due to privacy laws, relevant organizational and/or political affiliations, if known.
- All internal departmental correspondence discussing the citizen responses.
- All correspondence with other state agencies and officials regarding citizen responses and justifications for cancellation.
- Evidence or data that gun safety classes make the public less safe, or that withholding them makes the public safer, used by IDFW to make its determination.
- Advice from IDFW or other Maine state government counsel showing cancelation of the class would not violate the law mandating gun safety education.
- The internal notification authorizing cancellation of the class.
- The statement issued by IDFW notifying the public the class was canceled.
Of course, there’s a chance the request will be denied, but we’ll never know unless we try, and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it – including weighing what the legal options are if it is. If nothing else, it will be still more evidence that, by canceling a safety class, self-styled “commonsense gun safety law” proponents are the exact opposite of what they represent themselves to be, and are, in fact, demanding that most dangerous of conditions around firearms, ignorance.
The FOAA request, being sent by U.S. mail, follows:
Also see:
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
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