As the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates over whether to uphold a federal rule regulating the sales of untraceable “ghost guns,” some legal experts say Maine also needs to take steps to ban these weapons.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives set a new rule in 2022 that expanded the definition of a firearm to include DIY gun-making kits, which are usually sold online. The end-product is a working, untraceable firearm without a serial number, dubbed a “ghost gun.”
For years it was a way for gun sellers to get around federal licensing and background checks. But the 2022 rule meant these sellers were now required to obtain federal licensing.
In Maine, this had a noticeable effect, according to Cumberland County District Attorney Jackie Sartoris – though law enforcement agencies said they couldn’t provide specific data for the state.
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But Maine law doesn’t actually consider these kits firearms, and because of that, people who cannot legally own guns – if they have a felony conviction, for example – can legally purchase and possess ghost guns, up until the point when they are converted into a fireable weapon, Sartoris said.
“The whole idea of using a ghost gun is to fly under the radar, to not have any information out there,” she said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Johnathan Nathans said a large part of his work is targeting criminals who are prohibited from owning guns.
Nathans said many people can legally own build kits, often from the manufacturer Polymer 80, but there is a subset of people who order them in private sales that don’t require background checks. Maine law requires background checks for gun sales advertised on sites like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, but doesn’t have a universal background check requirement for other sales.
“That makes it attractive to people that are prohibited or trying to engage in illegal activities,” he said.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Johnathan Nathans, coordinator for Project Safe Neighborhoods, at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland on Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Some state lawmakers tried to close that loophole in 2019 and 2021.
The nearly identical bills would have defined undetectable and untraceable firearms under state law, and banned their manufacturing, transfer, sales and possession – a broader change than the federal rule offers.
But both bills failed. The first died in committee and the second failed in floor votes amid bipartisan opposition. Rep. Vicki Doudera, D-Camden, the founder and co-chair of the Maine Legislature’s gun safety caucus, said that won’t be the case in 2025.
She said her caucus has already discussed bringing another ghost gun bill forward next session. And after the Lewiston mass shooting, she anticipates the Legislature will take gun violence prevention more seriously.
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HOW SERIOUS IS THE ISSUE IN MAINE?
The number of ghost guns seized by police skyrocketed nationally between 2016 and 2021, according to ATF data. In those six years, the agency went from 1,629 recovered ghost guns to more than 19,000.
Although Topsham is a small town, Police Chief Marc Hagan said the department still sees the same crimes as other towns, just on a smaller scale.
“For us the concern over untraceable firearms is truly a concern,” Hagan said in an email last week. “Add into the mix that tech savvy juveniles, that may not be monitored as closely as one would like in the home, could use 3D printers to build their own firearms, and this could prove to be a serious issue for someone.”
His department was tipped off in 2022 to a local teen trying to build a handgun with his 3D printer, but he wasn’t able to turn it into a functional firearm and police could never find the weapon, Hagan said.
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The Portland Police Department only sees a handful of these firearms per year, said Lt. Nicholas Goodman. In many cases, the guns are dropped in a foot chase, he said.
While they’re nicknamed ghost guns because of their lack of serial number, Goodman said the department can still use other evidence to track down the owner.
“It’s like a fingerprint left behind,” Goodman said, referring to the bullets, casing and barrel.
Even if the guns had a serial number, they would still be difficult to trace if they were sold in a private sale, he said. That’s why Goodman said he supports the federal regulation on sellers.
“If you need a license to cut hair or do makeup, you should probably have a license to sell a gun,” Goodman said. “But at the same time, you have one or two people that do 100 dumb things that ruins it for everybody. That’s how law is made.”
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His bigger concern is their safety.
Of the ones he’s seen, many are hastily assembled and unstable because they aren’t manufactured by an engineer, Goodman said.
“I wouldn’t stand behind one and pull the trigger,” Goodman said. “I’d be afraid it would blow up in my face.”
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Though the 2022 federal rule regulates ghost gun sales, it doesn’t outlaw existing ghost guns or homemade, 3D-printed guns. Legal experts say if Maine wants full protection from ghost guns, it needs to pass its own legislation.
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The Gifford Law Center, a nonprofit advocating for gun safety laws, gave Maine a “D-“ for its gun laws this year, a small uptick from the failing grade it had the prior year.
David Pucino, the organization’s legal director, said Maine should mirror the federal law’s definition of a firearm and, ideally, make untraceable guns illegal. While that would require everyone to have serial numbers on their firearms, it won’t effect lawful gun owners, Pucino said.
“You just go to the gun dealer, they put a serial number on, they keep the record,” Pucino said. “If that gun is never used in a crime, no one ever hears about it again. But if it is used in a crime … it gives law enforcement the ability to trace that gun.”
State laws can extend above and beyond federal regulation as long as they are consistent with the Second Amendment, said Margaret Groban, a former federal prosecutor who sits on the board of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, which advocates for gun safety legislation.
“Firearm laws are best if they’re both at the federal level and at the state level because we have limited federal law enforcement in the state,” Groban said. “Having a corollary state ghost gun law would be very helpful for local law enforcement.”
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While state laws would make prosecuting ghost gun owners easier, companies should also be held responsible for selling these weapons, Pucino said.
“The attorney General and city attorneys really have the ability to hold the bad actors of that industry accountable for the harm that their products cause,” Pucino said.
Nathans, the federal prosecutor, also serves as the coordinator of the Maine Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, an initiative created to reduce gun violence nationwide.
He said its goal is to work with local service and advocacy groups to educate the community about topics like illegal gun ownership and domestic violence. In turn, he said, that work can help curb violence from untraceable firearms.
“It’s that idea of violence interruption, making sure that this potentially vulnerable population – either people that are addicted to controlled substances or people that are victims of domestic violence – that they’re not acquiring firearms for people that are prohibited,” Nathans said. “Be that a privately manufactured firearm or be it a serialized firearm.”
Steve Heinz of Cumberland is a member of the Maine Council of Trout Unlimited (Merrymeeting Bay chapter).
Man’s got to eat.
It’s a simple truth, and in Maine it carries a lot of weight. For generations, people here have hunted, fished and gathered food not just as a pastime, but as a practical part of life. That reality helps explain why Maine voters embraced a constitutional right to food — and why emotions run high when fishing regulations are challenged in court.
A recent lawsuit targeting Maine’s fly-fishing-only regulations has sparked exactly that reaction. The Maine Council of Trout Unlimited believes this moment calls for clarity and restraint. The management of Maine’s fisheries belongs with professional biologists and the public process they oversee, not in the courtroom.
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Trout Unlimited is not an anti-harvest organization, nor a club devoted to elevating one style of angling over another. We are a coldwater conservation organization focused on sustaining healthy, resilient fisheries.
Maine’s reputation as the last great stronghold of wild brook trout did not happen by accident; it is the product of decades of careful management by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW), guided by science, field experience and public participation.
Fly-fishing-only waters are one of the tools MDIFW uses to protect vulnerable fisheries. They are not about exclusivity. In most cases, fly fishing involves a single hook, results in lower hooking mortality and lends itself to catch-and-release practices. The practical effect is straightforward: more fish survive and more people get a chance to fish.
Maine’s trout waters are fundamentally different from the fertile rivers of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. Our freestone streams are cold, fast and naturally nutrient-poor. Thin soils, granite bedrock and dense forests limit aquatic productivity, meaning brook trout grow more slowly and reproduce in smaller numbers.
A single season of low flows, high water temperatures or habitat disturbance can set a population back for years. In Maine, conservation is not a luxury; it is a biological necessity.
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In more fertile southern waters, abundant insects and richer soils allow trout populations to rebound quickly from heavy harvest and environmental stress. Maine’s waters simply do not have that buffer.
Every wild brook trout here is the product of limited resources and fragile conditions. When fish are removed faster than they can be replaced, recovery is slow and uncertain. That reality is why management tools such as fly-fishing-only waters, reduced bag limits and seasonal protections matter so much.
These rules are not about denying access; they are about matching human use to ecological capacity so fisheries remain viable over time. Climate change only raises the stakes, as warmer summers and lower late-season flows increasingly push cold-water fisheries to their limits.
Healthy trout streams also safeguard drinking water, support wildlife and sustain rural economies through guiding and outdoor tourism. Conservation investments ripple far beyond the streambank.
Lawsuits short-circuit the management system that has served Maine well for decades. Courts are not designed to weigh fisheries science or balance competing uses of a complex public resource. That work is best done through open meetings, public input and adaptive management informed by professionals who spend their careers studying Maine’s waters.
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Man’s got to eat. But if we want Maine’s trout fisheries to endure, we also have to manage them wisely. That means trusting science, respecting process and recognizing that conservation — not confrontation — is what keeps food on the table and fish in the water.
TJ Biel scored 21 points and Newport native Ace Flagg added 10 points and seven rebounds as the University of Maine men’s basketball team held on for a 74-70 win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Saturday in Newark, New Jersey.
Logan Carey added 11 points and five assists for the Black Bears, who improve to 3-15 overall and 1-2 in the conference. Yanis Bamba chipped in 14 points.
Maine led by seven at the half, but NJIT went on a 13-0 run in the first four minutes to take a 43-37 lead. The Black Bears recovered and took the lead on a dunk by Keelan Steele with 7:53 left and held on for the win.
Sebastian Robinson scored 24 points and Ari Fulton grabbed 11 rebounds for NJIT (7-11, 2-1).
Clarissa Sabattis, Chief of the Houlton Band of Maliseets, foreground, and other leaders of Maine’s tribes are welcomed by lawmakers into the House Chamber in March, 2023 in Augusta. (Robert F. Bukaty, /Associated Press)
Maine’s gambling landscape is set to expand after Gov. Janet Mills decided Thursday to let tribes offer online casino games, but numerous questions remain over the launch of the new market and how much it will benefit the Wabanaki Nations.
Namely, there is no concrete timeline for when the new gambling options that make Maine the eighth “iGaming” state will become available. Maine’s current sports betting market that has been dominated by the Passamaquoddy Tribe through its partnership with DraftKings is evidence that not all tribes may reap equal rewards.
A national anti-online gaming group also vowed to ask Maine voters to overturn the law via a people’s veto effort and cited its own poll finding a majority of Mainers oppose online casino gaming.
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Here are the big remaining questions around iGaming.
1. When will iGaming go into effect?
The law takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns this year. Adjournment is slated for mid-April, but Mills spokesperson Ben Goodman noted it is not yet known when lawmakers will actually finish their work.
2. Where will the iGaming revenue go?
The iGaming law gives the state 18% of the gross receipts, which will translate into millions of dollars annually for gambling addiction and opioid use treatment funds, Maine veterans, school renovation loans and emergency housing relief.
Leaders of the four federally recognized tribes in Maine highlighted the “life-changing revenue” that will come thanks to the decision from Mills, a Democrat who has clashed with the Wabanaki Nations over the years over more sweeping tribal sovereignty measures.
But one chief went so far Thursday as to call her the “greatest ever” governor for “Wabanaki economic progress.”
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3. What gaming companies will the tribes work with?
DraftKings has partnered with the Passamaquoddy to dominate Maine’s sports betting market, while the Penobscot Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and the Mi’kmaq Nation have partnered with Caesars Entertainment to garner a smaller share of the revenue.
Wall Street analysts predicted the two companies will likely remain the major players in Maine’s iGaming market.
The partnership between the Passamaquoddy and DraftKings has brought in more than $100 million in gross revenue since 2024, but the Press Herald reported last month that some members of the tribe’s Sipayik reservation have criticized Chief Amkuwiposohehs “Pos” Bassett, saying they haven’t reaped enough benefits from the gambling money.
4. Has Mills always supported gambling measures?
The iGaming measure from Rep. Ambureen Rana, D-Bangor, factored into a long-running debate in Maine over gambling. In 2022, lawmakers and Mills legalized online sports betting and gave tribes the exclusive rights to offer it beginning in 2023.
But allowing online casino games such as poker and roulette in Maine looked less likely to become reality under Mills. Her administration had previously testified against the bill by arguing the games are addictive.
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But Mills, who is in the final year of her tenure and is running in the high-profile U.S. Senate primary for the chance to unseat U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Thursday she would let the iGaming bill become law without her signature. She said she viewed iGaming as a way to “improve the lives and livelihoods of the Wabanaki Nations.”
5. Who is against iGaming?
Maine’s two casinos in Bangor and Oxford opposed the iGaming bill, as did Gambling Control Board Chair Steve Silver and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, among other opponents.
Silver noted Hollywood Casino Bangor and Oxford Casino employ nearly 1,000 Mainers, and he argued that giving tribes exclusive rights to iGaming will lead to job losses.
He also said in a Friday interview the new law will violate existing statutes by cutting out his board from iGaming oversight.
“I don’t think there’s anything the board can do at this point,” Silver said.
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The National Association Against iGaming has pledged to mount an effort to overturn the law via a popular referendum process known as the “people’s veto.” But such attempts have a mixed record of success.
