Sen. Angus King (I-ME) introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at "saving lives" in the wake of several mass shootings across the United States, the most high-profile recent one occurring in his state of Maine.
King insisted the bill would not hinder Second Amendment rights.
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King, along with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), introduced the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion, or GOSAFE, Act, which seeks to "curb mass killings, without hindering Americans who own a firearm for self-defense or the marksmen who head to the shooting range or the woods during hunting season."
"For years, I have said that rather than using the appearance of these guns to restrict them, we should instead focus on how these weapons actually work and the features that make them especially dangerous," King said in a statement.
King said the GOSAFE Act will address "lethal capacity weapons," such as the one used in Lewiston, Maine, in October. Eighteen people were killed in two mass shootings: seven at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and eight at Schemengees Bar & Grille. Three others died after being taken to the hospital. The youngest victim was a 14-year-old boy who was part of a youth bowling league.
Since the mass shooting, the use of Maine's "yellow flag" law, which temporarily restricts access to guns during mental health crises, has spiked dramatically. It has already been invoked 36 times, making up 30% of all weapons-restrictions orders imposed since the law went into effect in 2020, per ABC News. The figure is greater than all the times the law has been invoked in 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined.
"Saving lives now and in the future has been my single goal," King said in an op-ed to the Portland Press Herald.
The legislation, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), would limit the number of rounds that a gun's magazine can contain and require the magazines to be permanent, "eliminating the ability for gunmen in mass shootings to replace a magazine and reload their weapons rapidly."
The bill also would prohibit the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms with replaceable high-capacity magazines and make bump stocks and Glock switches unlawful.
"This law wouldn't change Maine's proud history of responsible gun ownership — it makes commonsense exceptions for traditional hunting firearms and those used in self-defense, for example," King said.
King pointed to former President Donald Trump's ban on "bump stocks" in 2019, as well as polling numbers showing a majority of people support universal background checks and that around 80% of people support "red flag" laws.
"This isn't and shouldn't become a partisan issue. And for the most part, saving lives from these weapons isn't," King said.
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"I realize that nothing can bring back the lives of our family and friends, but responsible actions moving forward can reduce the likelihood of such a nightmare happening again in Maine or anywhere else. We owe the victims in Lewiston no less," the Maine senator added.
The victims of the Lewiston mass shooting are Tricia C. Asselin, 53; Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40; William Frank Brackett, 48; Thomas Ryan Conrad, 34; Michael R. Deslauriers II, 51; Maxx A. Hathaway, 35; Bryan M. MacFarlane, 41; Keith D. Macneir, 64; Ronald G. Morin, 55; Joshua A. Seal, 36; Arthur Fred Strout, 42; Stephen M. Vozzella, 45; Lucille M. Violette, 73; Robert E. Violette, 76; Joseph Lawrence Walker, 57; Jason Adam Walker, 51; William A. Young, 44; and Aaron Young, 14.