Legislative History of LD652...
IA_farmboy, I acknowledge that I've picked and chosen snippets of your comments...so you can legitimately ding me for that, if you chose...
I'm not saying that LD 652 would be a loss, I'm saying it's not much of a gain. There are so many ifs, ands, and buts, that it's effectively meaningless.
The way that we in Maine view this is that it's a big deal, huge victory for RKBA, and in no way meaningless. To us it's a major big deal, even with the duty to inform (which actually is a minor irritant and in no way is perceived as an obstacle). Like it's been noted before, after a year or two, after the dust settles and everyone sees that any anti-LD652 hysteria was unfounded, it can be removed.
Looking at the history of the bill, and when the governor made his statements, the bill had passed both the House and Senate when the governor stated refusal to sign.
Now the history based on the legislative tracking site and news releases:
Action_By_Maine_Legislature_on_LD652
03/03/2015 - bill LD652, sponsored by Sen. Brakey, is referred to joint committee by both Senate and House
05/26/2015 - amended out of committee to include fiscal effects of bill enactment, with reports to both chambers (majority ought not to pass, minority ought to pass)
05/29/2015 - Senate amends bill to include safety brochure requirement, passes bill as amended, sends to House for concurrence
06/01/2015 - House amends bill to include duty to inform, accepts Senate and Committee amendments, passes bill, sends back to Senate for concurrence
06/02/2015 - Governor LePage announces that he won't sign the bill (strongly implying veto) due to lack of military provision for active duty and veterans 18-21
06/03/2015 - Senate amends bill to include military-related age provision, re-words House amendments, passes bill, sends back to House for concurrence
06/04/2015 - House concurs with Senate version of the bill, passes it to be engrossed
06/04/2015 - Senate accepts concurrence and passes bill to be engrossed
06/04/2015 - House passes engrossed bill to be enacted
06/04/2015 - Senate parks bill on appropriations table pending legislative procedural action