Wiscasset shuts down bid to regulate guns near downtown

The Wiscasset Select Board voted down an ordinance Tuesday evening that would have banned shooting guns in certain areas of town over fear of legal ramifications.

The issue first came up in January , when a town resident, Leslie Roberts, brought up to the Select Board that she was concerned that duck hunters were shooting too close to where people walk on paths near the water in downtown.

The town put forth an ordinance that would have restricted the discharge of air guns, gas-charged weapons and any weapons that use gunpowder in an area that stretches from Pottle Cove Road to behind the elementary school.

But, some of the Select Board members were worried that an ordinance enacted for safety could be construed as limiting hunting, which the town of Wiscasset is not allowed to do under state law.

“That’s where I’m going to have an issue with this because somebody’s going to complain,” said Wiscasset Town Manager Dennis Simmons.

The Select Board ultimately voted 3-2 to shut down the ordinance, with Bill Maloney, James Andretta and Pamela Dunning opposed, and Chair Sarah Whitfield and Terry Heller voting to push the ordinance forward.

Nobody spoke at public comment, save for a few interjections from the audience at the meeting. Whitfield noted that she wasn’t comfortable making a decision about the ordinance without input from the public.

Maloney said there would be no point in pushing the ordinance to a public hearing and a vote if it were to end up illegal, anyway.

Andretta mentioned that the ordinance could be more reasonably interpreted as restricting firearms discharge for safety if there were exceptions for shotguns, but since hunters are already using shotguns for duck hunting, that ordinance would not solve the problem Roberts set out to resolve.

“I’m not looking to open up ourselves to a lawsuit,” Andretta said.