Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, speaks at a Jan. 23 news conference at the State House about petitions for a referendum on a proposed “red flag” law. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

A proposal for a red flag law that would make it easier to remove weapons from people considered a threat to themselves or others has qualified for the November ballot.

The Maine Department of the Secretary of State announced Friday that gun safety advocates gathered the required number of signatures from voters to send their proposal to a statewide referendum.

If approved, a red flag law, also known as an extreme risk protection order, would provide a pathway for family or household members, in addition to law enforcement, to petition a court to temporarily remove someone’s weapons.

And unlike Maine’s current yellow flag law, the proposal would eliminate the need for a mental health evaluation before a judge can order the temporary confiscation of weapons.

The Maine Gun Safety Coalition launched the effort to get a proposal for a red flag law on a statewide ballot after the Maine Legislature failed to act on a red flag bill last year in the wake of the mass shooting in Lewiston that killed 18 people.

“This past fall, tens of thousands of Mainers decided to step up where elected leaders didn’t and put a real extreme risk protection order law on the ballot,” Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, said in a written statement.

“This is a proven, commonsense tool for families that’s been effective in many other states in saving countless lives and preventing tragedies like Lewiston.”

Opponents of a red flag law in Maine have said that the Lewiston shooting could have been prevented using the existing yellow flag law and that a red flag law infringes on rights protected by the Second Amendment.

The state commission that investigated the Lewiston shooting found that the yellow flag law could have been used to take the shooter’s weapons and wasn’t. Use of the law by police has since spiked as awareness of how it works has increased.

Twenty-one states have red flag laws that provide for quick intervention and the ability to temporarily remove weapons when a person is at serious risk of harming themselves or others, according to the gun violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety.

Supporters say that in addition to streamlining the process, red flag laws have reduced suicides, the leading cause of firearm deaths in Maine, and that requiring a mental health evaluation stigmatizes mental illness by wrongly linking it to violent behavior.

The Department of the Secretary of State said Friday that supporters of the red flag initiative gathered more than 74,000 valid signatures in support of the referendum, exceeding the required number of 67,682.

The proposal will now go to the Legislature, which has the option of enacting the bill as written or sending it to a statewide vote in November.