This week, Maine gubernatorial candidate Rosa Scarcelli declared in a written statement that she is the only Democratic candidate in favor of mandatory criminal background checks for the purchase of firearms in Maine. But her Democratic opponents say the law cannot be enforced, and that there are circumstances in which guns should be allowed to be transferred or sold without background checks.

Right now in Maine, if you buy a gun at a store like L.L. Bean or Cabela's you have to undergo a criminal background check. But if you buy a gun from a friend, or from a private seller at a gun show, or through an ad in Uncle Henry's, no background check is performed. Background checks are designed to keep guns out of the hands of illegal immigrants, underage children and those convicted of a felony or domestic violence assault.

"I think that it's important that someone who's turned down for a purchase of a firearm can't turn around and buy it at some other venue," says Rosa Scarcelli, who runs an affordable housing business and is a Democratic candidate for governor.

She says she was surprised to learn that she's the only Democrat in the governor's race in favor of mandatory criminal background checks on all firearms purchases. "I thought it was a common sense measure and one that certainly should be part of our party's position and I think it's important that we show leadership on this issue."

Recently, the Maine Attorney General's Office issued a report showing that in the past two years, nine out of 16 domestic violence homicides in Maine were committed with guns. There are no statistics on how those guns were obtained. Scarcelli jumped on the findings as an example of why background checks are needed.

But her fellow Democratic opponents objected to her equating their stance on gun laws with apathy for domestic violence victims.
"There's a whole different set of statutes that deal effectively with domestic violence. This is mixing apples and oranges," says Pat McGowan, a former commissioner for the state Department of Conservation.

He says a law requiring background checks on all firearms sales is unenforceable and unnecessary. "Maine has the highest gun ownership per capita in the country, but it is also the second safest state in the country," McGowan says. "So when we look at those issues of gun ownership and gun purchases, just remember that from the day Maine was started, people have been buying and selling and trading guns back and forth, it's part of the rural economy."

State Senate President and Democratic candidate Libby Mitchell says she supports enforcing the so-called "gun-show loophole" at the federal level, instead of making it a state law.

"It should be done on the federal level because the amount of money it would cost to create a database good enough to do that, of course, you'd have people coming across state lines who wouldn't have access to it," Mitchell says. "So a gun-show loophole is very, very different from a simple question yes or no question of, 'Do you support mandatory checks on everybody?' Of course not."

The issue of out-of-state residents traveling to Maine to purchase guns is ongoing. In 2008, Maine supplied 11 percent of nearly 900 recovered guns in Massachusetts, according to a federal report. Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe says the state must prevent children and criminals from obtaining guns.

Rowe says he favors closing the gun-show loophole, but he does not support mandatory background checks for all gun purchases.
"I believe there ought to be exceptions. Most firearm transactions in Maine are not transactions involving criminals, or little children. They're transactions between adults, in many cases, who are hunters. Training, public education around the use of firearms is very important. But yes, I support closing the gunshow loophole and I've said that before, but I don't support a complete universal law."

One Democratic candidate who is opposed to closing the gunshow loophole is John Richardson, former commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

"To the average person, these are fairly invasive background checks, they can only be done by the state police, they're costly," he says. "And so you have to weigh the benefit of the cost associated with what is the benefit you get from it. In some cases they're not even accurate, so for me, a mandatory background check is not something I support in all cases. There would be certainly some cases in which that might be appropriate. Clearly, if you had a convicted child molester, for example, you'd want to do a mandatory background check on that person."

Gun control is not always a partisan issue. However Democrats tend to favor stricter laws than Republicans. Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence director Karen D'Andrea says she hopes the next governor - Democrat or Republican - will close the gunshow loophole.

"Often we hear, 'Well you're infringing on a second amendment right to bear weapons.' And that's not what this is about. This is actually about trying to prevent crime," D'Andrea says. "If a citizen has nothing to hide and wants to buy a weapon, they should be able to do that."

D'Andrea says she's glad to hear that Scarcelli is in favor of requiring mandatory criminal background checks on all people who purchase firearms, but she says her organization has not yet decided to endorse a candidate. Calls to the Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine for this story were not returned.