State Rep. Austin Theriault (R) also voted against a budget bill that increased mental health funding, despite calling for the "largest-ever" investment in mental health care.
Maine state Rep. Austin Theriault, a Republican running for a critical U.S. House seat as a champion of the Second Amendment, called his local sheriff’s office after passing a man wielding what looked like an AR-15 rifle while going into his home.
In a bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Jared Golden that could decide control of the House, Theriault has attacked Golden for endorsing an assault weapons ban after a man with an assault-style rifle murdered 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, in late October last year.
But Theriault, a former champion race car driver who lives in Fort Kent, Maine, has apparently not always been comfortable in the presence of the AR-15, perhaps the best known example of an assault-style rifle.
HuffPost obtained the records of Theriault’s interactions with the Aroostook County, Maine sheriff’s department. Theriault called the Aroostook County, Maine sheriff’s department in the evening of Jan. 10, 2023, to report his concerns about a man wielding what Theriault thought was an AR-15 while the man was entering his front porch.
According to the report, the dispatcher at the sheriff’s department said Theriault “wanted to report a man walking onto his porch holding his AR-15. He didn’t have an address but stated he wanted law enforcement notified in case the man fired shots.”
No shots were fired, the report noted.
In their own write-up of the incident, the officer subsequently tasked with responding to Theriault’s call implied that Theriault might have a tendency to unnecessarily report other people’s behavior to the police.
“Austin Theriault called in advising a male subject he passed was standing on his porch with what appeared to be [an] AR-15 rifle. I reviewed other cards and saw that Austin has called in multiple suspicious complaints to police,” the officer wrote. “Austin disclosed no information that lead [sic] me to believe any criminal conduct was committed. Austin could not give an address but described the residence.”
“Cleared nothing further,” the officer then concluded.
Maine, a rural state with a robust hunting culture, does not prohibit ownership of assault-style rifles. It does not even require residents to obtain a permit to own a gun.
Local Democrats accused Theriault of hypocrisy for calling the police on a man lawfully holding an AR-15-style rifle while also crusading against Golden for backing an assault weapons ban.
“It’s northern Maine, and there’s a whole bunch of reasons why you may be sitting on your porch with a rifle,” said Maine Senate President Troy Jackson (D), who lives less than an hour from Theriault in the town of Allagash. “If I drove by a house or something like that and saw somebody sitting there, I might wonder, but I don’t think, unless I know that person and I know that they have health issues, I don’t think I’d ever be calling the police on anyone, and most people that I know wouldn’t either.”
It's northern Maine, and there's a whole bunch of reasons why you may be sitting on your porch with a rifle. Maine Senate President Troy Jackson (D)
“If you’re beating your chest about being the Second Amendment guy, I do think that’s kind of odd,” added Jackson, who owns five guns.
John Martin, a former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and a Fort Kent resident, raised similar questions about Theriault’s actions, while emphasizing he did not know exactly what Theriault saw that evening.
“It surprises me, because why would he complain about someone having that gun when he was complaining Golden should not have done what he did?” said Martin, who owns six guns. “I don’t see the follow-through from his point of view.”
Jen Lynds, chair of the Aroostook County, Maine, Democratic Party, took a different tack, arguing Theriault’s concerns were legitimate, but that he should extend the same understanding to people who want to restrict AR-15s.
“Austin Theriault is justified in his apprehension regarding the presence of weapons of warfare in a residential area,” Lynds said. “Nevertheless, it is regrettable that he is only concerned with firearms safety when it could potentially impact him or his family. Most of the time, he is prepared to sacrifice the safety of others in exchange for political rhetoric.”
A spokesperson for the Theriault campaign responded to HuffPost’s inquiry about the police call by claiming to have talked a local Maine outlet out of covering this story. But the campaign declined to discuss its version of events with HuffPost on record.
The Lewiston massacre has made Maine’s reigning Democrats ― who, in 2022, maintained their “trifecta” (control of the governorship and both state legislative houses) ― more open to imposing stricter gun regulations.
This past April, Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed a law mandating background checks for private gun sales that are publicly advertised, and expanded the state’s “yellow flag” provisions empowering law enforcement to put “dangerous people” in custody and take away their arms. (Unlike “red flag” laws, which allow individual civilians to directly seek an emergency court order confiscating someone’s weapons, a “yellow flag” law requires individuals to report their concerns to the police who then assess the claim.)
Mills also allowed a bill creating a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases to become law without her signature.
Golden, a Lewiston-born combat veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, had his own emotional change of heart following the bloodshed in his hometown. He reversed his opposition to assault weapons on Oct. 26 ― the day after the Lewiston massacre ― and apologized for his previous stance.
“I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime,” Golden said in an Oct. 26 press conference. “The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure.”
In the ensuing months, Golden, himself an AR-15 owner , elaborated on his position. He clarified that he is calling for a state-level ban on new assault-style rifle purchases and sales going forward, while also allowing existing owners to hold their weapons in a more regulated capacity.
Golden has also argued that banning a specific kind of gun because of its unusual lethality would be more effective and less intrusive than creating new bureaucratic hurdles for people to obtain guns legally. With that in mind, he came out against Mills’ package of expanded background checks and “yellow flag” provisions, as well as the state’s three-day waiting period.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) reversed his opposition to an assault weapons ban following a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, in October.
Theriault responded to the Lewiston massacre by blasting Golden on social media for “attacking the 2nd Amendment.”
In lieu of additional gun regulations, Theriault wrote he supports “the largest-ever investment in mental health care and access that the country has ever seen.”
But in mid-April, Theriault joined the majority of his Republican colleagues to vote against a supplemental budget bill dramatically increasing funding for gun violence prevention and for mental health programs. The bill created the state’s office of gun violence prevention and provided it with $3.2 million in initial funding, appropriated $6 million in funding for victims’ services, and allotted millions more to a host of mental health initiatives like mobile crisis teams and crisis receiving centers.
In Theriault’s records, there is one other instance of him reporting someone’s conduct to the police.
Theriault called the sheriff’s department on Nov. 8, 2022, to report a “suspicious vehicle” at a scenic lookout point in Wallagrass, Maine. The officer responding to the call found a Black man and a white woman smoking marijuana in a white Honda with Florida plates.
“It appeared that they were smoking while at the parking lot and had not driven after consuming marijuana,” the officer wrote in the report.
The sale and consumption of marijuana is legal in Maine, but driving while high is not. The responding officer insisted that the couple leave the car there and get a ride home, and that he would pull over the driver if he saw him on the road.
Golden’s reelection fight against Theriault is expected to be one of the most hotly contested races in the country. Golden, a co-chair of the centrist Blue Dog Caucus who has refused to say how he will vote in the presidential election, is one of just five House Democrats representing seats where Donald Trump won in 2020. Democrats need a net gain of just four seats to retake control of the House from the reigning GOP.
The National Rifle Association endorsed Theriault on Monday, citing Golden’s support for an assault weapons ban. During Golden’s 2022 reelection bid, the gun rights group had given Golden a “B” grade and declined to endorse in the race.
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