Despite having nearly $6 million of Michael Bloomberg’s money behind it, Maine Question 3—a ballot initiative that would make it a crime for Mainers to even lend a gun to a friend for hunting without a background check and require transfer fees for both the loan and the return of the gun—was defeated by voters in the Pine Tree State by a margin of about 25,000 votes, the Bangor Daily News reports.
Although Bloomberg and the referendum’s backers spent about six times as much as opponents, their misleading and deceptive ads couldn’t hide the truth: Question 3 was opposed by 75 percent of the sheriffs in Maine, and Gov. Paul LePage warned that it was “not enforceable.”
“With their freedoms in question and liberties at stake, the people of Maine embraced the rights recognized in our Constitution and said no to the poorly written, unenforceable mandates of the Question 3 ballot initiative,” said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox.
