An Act To Strengthen the Integrity of Nonresident Concealed Handgun Permits
Maine Legislature, Session 125, LD 1728
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Sponsors: PLUMMER
Amends: 25 MRSA §2003

Legislative Document 
No. 1728 
H.P. 1278 
House of Representatives, January 3, 2012 
An Act To Strengthen the Integrity of Nonresident Concealed 
Handgun Permits 
Submitted by the Department of Public Safety pursuant to Joint Rule 204. 
Reference to the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety suggested and ordered 
printed. 
HEATHER J.R. PRIEST 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative PLUMMER of Windham. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  25 MRSA §2003, sub-§1, ¶B, as amended by PL 2011, c. 298, §7, is 
further amended to read: 
B.  Is not disqualified to possess a firearm pursuant to Title 15, section 393, is not 
disqualified as a permit holder under that same section and, is not disqualified to 
possess a firearm based on federal law as a result of a criminal conviction and is not 
disqualified as a permit holder under subsection 18; 
Sec. 2.  25 MRSA §2003, sub-§1, ¶D, as amended by PL 2011, c. 298, §7, is 
further amended to read: 
D.  Submits an application that contains the following: 
(1)  Full name; 
(2)  Full current address and addresses for the prior 5 years; 
(3)  The date and place of birth, height, weight, color of eyes, color of hair, sex 
and race; 
(4)  A record of previous issuances of, refusals to issue and revocations of a 
permit to carry concealed firearms, handguns or other concealed weapons by any 
issuing authority in the State or any other jurisdiction.  The Except as provided in 
subsection 18, the record of previous refusals alone does not constitute cause for 
refusal and the record of previous revocations alone constitutes cause for refusal 
only as provided in section 2005; and 
(5)  Answers to the following questions: 
(a)  Are you less than 18 years of age? 
(b)  Is there a formal charging instrument now pending against you in this 
State for a crime under the laws of this State that is punishable by 
imprisonment for a term of one year or more? 
(c)  Is there a formal charging instrument now pending against you in any 
federal court for a crime under the laws of the United States that is 
punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year? 
(d)  Is there a formal charging instrument now pending against you in another 
state for a crime that, under the laws of that state, is punishable by a term of 
imprisonment exceeding one year? 
(e)  If your answer to the question in division (d) is "yes," is that charged 
crime classified under the laws of that state as a misdemeanor punishable by 
a term of imprisonment of 2 years or less? 
(f)  Is there a formal charging instrument pending against you in another state 
for a crime punishable in that state by a term of imprisonment of 2 years or 
less and classified by that state as a misdemeanor, but that is substantially 
similar to a crime that under the laws of this State is punishable by 
imprisonment for a term of one year or more? 
(g)  Is there a formal charging instrument now pending against you under the 
laws of the United States, this State or any other state or the Passamaquoddy 
Tribe or Penobscot Nation in a proceeding in which the prosecuting authority 
has pleaded that you committed the crime with the use of a firearm against a 
person or with the use of a dangerous weapon as defined in Title 17-A, 
section 2, subsection 9, paragraph A? 
(h)  Is there a formal charging instrument now pending against you in this or 
any other jurisdiction for a juvenile offense that, if committed by an adult, 
would be a crime described in division (b), (c), (d) or (f) and involves bodily 
injury or threatened bodily injury against another person? 
(i)  Is there a formal charging instrument now pending against you in this or 
any other jurisdiction for a juvenile offense that, if committed by an adult, 
would be a crime described in division (g)? 
(j)  Is there a formal charging instrument now pending against you in this or 
any other jurisdiction for a juvenile offense that, if committed by an adult, 
would be a crime described in division (b), (c), (d) or (f), but does not 
involve bodily injury or threatened bodily injury against another person? 
(k)  Have you ever been convicted of committing or found not criminally 
responsible by reason of mental disease or defect of committing a crime 
described in division (b), (c), (f) or (g)? 
(l)  Have you ever been convicted of committing or found not criminally 
responsible by reason of mental disease or defect of committing a crime 
described in division (d)? 
(m)  If your answer to the question in division (l) is "yes," was that crime 
classified under the laws of that state as a misdemeanor punishable by a term 
of imprisonment of 2 years or less? 
(n)  Have you ever been adjudicated as having committed a juvenile offense 
described in division (h) or (i)? 
(o)  Have you ever been adjudicated as having committed a juvenile offense 
described in division (j)? 
(p)  Are you currently subject to an order of a Maine court or an order of a 
court of the United States or another state, territory, commonwealth or tribe 
that restrains you from harassing, stalking or threatening your intimate 
partner, as defined in 18 United States Code, Section 921(a), or a child of 
your intimate partner, or from engaging in other conduct that would place 
your intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to that intimate 
partner or the child? 
(q)  Are you a fugitive from justice? 
(r)  Are you a drug abuser, drug addict or drug dependent person? 
(s)  Do you have a mental disorder that causes you to be potentially 
dangerous to yourself or others? 
(t)  Have you been adjudicated to be an incapacitated person pursuant to Title 
18-A, Article 5, Parts 3 and 4 and not had that designation removed by an 
order under Title 18-A, section 5-307, subsection (b)? 
(u)  Have you been dishonorably discharged from the military forces within 
the past 5 years? 
(v)  Are you an illegal alien? 
(w)  Have you been convicted in a Maine court of a violation of Title 17-A, 
section 1057 within the past 5 years? 
(x)  Have you been adjudicated in a Maine court within the past 5 years as 
having committed a juvenile offense involving conduct that, if committed by 
an adult, would be a violation of Title 17-A, section 1057? 
(y)  To your knowledge, have you been the subject of an investigation by any 
law enforcement agency within the past 5 years regarding the alleged abuse 
by you of family or household members? 
(z)  Have you been convicted in any jurisdiction within the past 5 years of 3 
or more crimes punishable by a term of imprisonment of less than one year or 
of crimes classified under the laws of a state as a misdemeanor and 
punishable by a term of imprisonment of 2 years or less? 
(aa)   Have you been adjudicated in any jurisdiction within the past 5 years to 
have committed 3 or more juvenile offenses described in division (o)? 
(bb)  To your knowledge, have you engaged within the past 5 years in 
reckless or negligent conduct that has been the subject of an investigation by 
a governmental entity? 
(cc)  Have you been convicted in a Maine court within the past 5 years of any 
Title 17-A, chapter 45 drug crime? 
(dd)  Have you been adjudicated in a Maine court within the past 5 years as 
having committed a juvenile offense involving conduct that, if committed by 
an adult, would have been a violation of Title 17-A, chapter 45? 
(ee)  Have you been adjudged in a Maine court to have committed the civil 
violation of possession of a useable amount of marijuana, butyl nitrite or 
isobutyl nitrite in violation of Title 22, section 2383 within the past 5 years? 
(ff)  Have you been adjudicated in a Maine court within the past 5 years as 
having committed the juvenile crime defined in Title 15, section 3103, 
subsection 1, paragraph B of possession of a useable amount of marijuana, as 
provided in Title 22, section 2383?; and 
Sec. 3.  25 MRSA §2003, sub-§18 is enacted to read: 
18.  Nonresident applicant;  prohibition.  An issuing authority may not issue a 
nonresident permit to carry concealed handguns to a nonresident applicant who: 
A.  Resides in a state that issues concealed handgun permits to residents and whose 
laws governing the issuance of concealed handgun permits are substantially 
equivalent to or less restrictive than the laws of this State; and 
B.  Applied for and was denied a resident permit to carry a concealed handgun in the 
applicant’s state of residence.  
SUMMARY 
This bill prohibits authorities that issue permits to carry concealed handguns from 
issuing such a permit to an applicant for a Maine nonresident permit who lives in a state 
that also issues concealed handgun permits and whose laws on such permits are 
substantially equivalent to or less restrictive than Maine law if the applicant applied for 
and was denied a concealed handgun permit by the applicant's state of residence.