With the whole world watching, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed banning bump stocks, a ban that might have helped lessen the trauma many Mainers still feel after last year’s mass murder. Why? Bump stocks can give regular guns the explosive power of an AR-15 so that many people can be mowed down at once. Mills argued in her veto message that “the definition of affected conversion devices is overly broad and ambiguous and might inadvertently include devices that don’t actually allow some guns to fire like an automatic weapon.”

I don’t get what she’s saying, but Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, the bill’s author, says the state should “balance a theoretical concern about unintended consequences against the very real public safety concerns rapid-fire devices create.” That’s called common sense.

The gun lobby, which can usually get whatever it wants in the time it takes to breathe in and out twice, was shocked that the 72-hour wait is now law. Now that Mainers have spoken, through the Legislature and the governor, the gun folks want to take its gun issues to a referendum to see if We the People will change our minds. Nope. Public safety still comes first.

Donna Halvorsen
South Portland