PA Bill Number: HB1604
Title: In employees, providing for mandatory firearms training for certain officers.
Description: In employees, providing for mandatory firearms training for certain officers. ...
Last Action:
Last Action Date: Jun 14, 2025
Flawed background checks don't contain firearm sales :: 06/24/2011
Like many states, Maine depends on the FBI to conduct background checks of people who want to acquire firearms from the state's federally licensed gun dealers.
And like many states, Maine is a slacker in supplying the records that the FBI depends on to run those checks.
That's how Raymond Geisel got his guns, including a Glock Model 17 pistol and a semi-automatic version of the AK-47 assault rifle. Geisel had previously been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Bangor, which made him ineligible under federal law to buy or possess a gun. But because state officials had not supplied records of his commitment to the FBI, Geisel passed background checks without being flagged.
