Maine Question 2, officially the Extreme Risk Protection Orders to Restrict Firearms and Weapons Access Initiative, was an indirect initiated state statute that appeared on the ballot in the U.S. state of Maine on November 4, 2025, concurrent with the 2025 United States elections. The measure passed.
Background The Maine Gun Safety Coalition announced in January 2025 that they had gathered over 80,000 signatures from Maine citizens in support of the initiative. The signatures were validated in March 2025, and the initiative was certified as having qualified for the ballot in the November 2025 election.
In June, gun owners' rights groups threatened to file a lawsuit against the Maine Legislature if it did not schedule a public hearing on the citizens' proposed ERPO Act, as required by state law. Opposition within the Legislature to holding the hearing was dropped soon after. As the Legislature did not vote to enact the citizens' initiated Act, it will now go to the voters on the November 2025 ballot as Question 2.
Unlike Maine's yellow flag law, Question 2 does not require the homicidal or suicidal individual to be taken into custody first and subjected to mental health evaluation before obtaining the temporary gun removal order. Thus, if Question 2 passes, law enforcement will have the ability to obtain a court order to remove the individual's guns when they are away from their home or car, without having to find and detain them.
Maine currently has yellow flag laws, a lesser version of red flag laws. In Maine, only law enforcement officers can confiscate firearms, while a judge requires a mental health evaluation to do the same.
Text
Impact The initiative would allow judges to more easily issue extreme risk protection orders, permitting them to authorize confiscation of firearms if an individual is deemed a threat by a judge based on evidence presented by law enforcement or family members. It would also prohibit the individual from purchasing a firearm for one year, unless the respondent files a successful motion to terminate the extreme risk protection order early.
The confiscation/prohibition process begins with a family member or a law enforcement officer filing an affidavit attesting to the alleged threat the individual poses. A judge may hold a hearing, at which the individual may argue in their defense, within fourteen days of the affidavit's filing, or a judge may choose to use an "emergency clause" to forcibly confiscate the individual's firearms immediately, before any due process, with a hearing scheduled within fourteen days. A confiscation may last for up to a year.
Endorsements
Polling Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Marginof error Yes No UndecidedUniversity of New HampshireOctober 16–21, 20251,015 (LV)± 3.1%38%40%22%
Results
By county CountyYesNoInvalidTotalTurnout#%#% Androscoggin 19,060 57.56% 14,051 42.44% 183 33,294 Aroostook 8,267 46.98% 9,391 53.02% 84 17,742 Cumberland 94,471 77.27% 27,784 22.73% 600 122,855 Franklin 5,307 51.57% 4,983 48.43% 42 10,332 Hancock 14,587 63.01% 8,563 36.99% 96 23,246 Kennebec 23,436 55.49% 18,798 44.51% 152 42,386 Knox 11,394 66.86% 5,647 33.14% 63 17,104 Lincoln 10,582 63.04% 6,203 36.96% 70 16,855 Oxford 10,358 52.39% 9,412 47.61% 102 19,872 Penobscot 24,693 52.54% 22,305 47.46% 177 47,175 Piscataquis 2,399 41.26% 3,415 58.74% 22 5,836 Sagadahoc 10,681 64.08% 5,987 35.92% 75 16,743 Somerset 6,287 42.74% 8,357 57.26% 330 14,974 Waldo 9,315 58.67% 6,563 41.33% 61 15,939 Washington 5,064 44.68% 6,269 55.32% 104 11,437 York 49,929 64.32% 23,702 35.68% 325 73,956 Totals 307,911 62.26% 181,601 37.74% 2,496 492,008
See also Red flag law
Notes
References
External links
Ballotpedia