Weak gun sales in states like Maine lead to drug trafficking and terrorism, as well as all the garden variety ills — domestic murders, road rage, workplace or school violence — that such weapons make possible, or more likely.

The drug/gun cycle is fairly well documented. Guns are purchased with relative ease in Maine, sometimes in large quantities, and shipped south to Massachusetts, where they are much harder to come by legally. Drugs are manufactured in Massachusetts and shipped north to Maine, where demand is high and dealers can make more money.

In many cases, the firearms — either purchased through straw buyers, legal purchasers who are buying the guns for someone who wouldn’t pass a background check — or stolen from unsecured cars and homes — are traded directly for drugs.

Augusta Police Chief Robert Gregoire said that not only is there evidence that guns are being traded for drugs, there appears to be some kind of organization for shipping stolen or straw-purchased guns out of state. He stopped short of saying that such things are gang-related, but in recent weeks, there have been out of state gangs caught with large quantities of drugs in Maine.

And then this week, it turns out that one of the men accused of the Boston Marathon bombing had a gun purchased by a straw buyer named Danny Sun at Cabela’s in Scarborough. Sun had purchased numerous weapons at the same time. Maine law does not forbid this.

Sun said he passed the gun in question to another man known to be a drug dealer. No one is sure how Tamerlan Tsarnaev got the gun.

What is known is that Tsarnaev, who used the gun to murder MIT security guard Sean Collier and wound MBTA officer Richard Donohue, didn’t have a handgun permit. His state has strong gun laws. He would have had to have submitted to a fingerprint check as well as a lengthy background check. His younger brother was too young to have qualified for a handgun permit or to pass the screening necessary to get a gun.

Massachusetts has the sixth strongest gun laws in the nation, and the second lowest gun death rate.

Only the 9 mm handgun purchased in Maine by the straw buyer was recovered, despite earlier assertions that the pair had numerous weapons.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that the federal government believes that drug money also funded Tsarnaev’s travel to Chechnya, and that they believe he was linked to an unsolved triple murder that was drug related.

If gun buying in Maine wasn’t such a cakewalk, it’s possible that Collier, at least, would be alive today.

Gun laws in Maine can be strengthened without infringement of the second amendment. It is time to consider a rational gun policy in Maine that would help not only to stem the drug trade, but save lives as well.

Straw purchasing must be made illegal. All gun sales must go through a licensed gun dealership with strong background checks made of the applicant. People who wish to sell weapons should be required to sell them through gun dealers who will perform the necessary checks.

Multiple gun purchases should also be illegal. In many states, there is a period of time between the purchase of weapons.

Prospective gun owners should be able to prove that they have been trained in the weapon’s safe use and storage, and understand the penalties … which should be severe … for misuse or illegal sale.

If we act to stop some of the most egregious and obvious misuses of our gun laws, Maine can be “the way life should be” again, instead of “the place where terrorists and drug dealers go to get their guns.