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An Act Allowing Municipalities To Enact Firearms Policies in Local Government Buildings
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 25 MRSA §2011, sub-§3, as enacted by PL 1989, c. 359, is amended to read:
 
3. Exception.   This section does not prohibit an order, ordinance, rule or regulation of any political subdivision whichthat, with the exception of appropriate civil penalty provisions, conforms exactly with any applicable provision of state law or whichthat regulates the discharge of firearms within a jurisdiction. This section does not prohibit the legislative body of any municipality from adopting an ordinance that restricts the carrying of firearms in that municipality's essential municipal offices and places of legislative assembly in the same manner and with the same effect as those restrictions are applied by law or rule in the State's capitol area. For the purpose of this subsection, "essential municipal offices" means the customary office facilities of a municipality's clerk, treasurer, tax collector, assessor, manager or administrator, and "places of legislative assembly" means the town or city hall or other municipal building where the town meeting or town or city council assembles for the purpose of enacting or adopting municipal budgets, laws and ordinances. If the legislative body of a municipality adopts an ordinance that restricts the carrying of firearms in that municipality's essential municipal offices or places of legislative assembly, or both, the municipality shall post, in a prominent location outside the affected offices and places, notice of the existence of that restriction.
 
SUMMARY
This bill provides a municipal legislative body with the authority to adopt an ordinance that restricts the carrying of firearms in the municipality's essential municipal offices and places of legislative assembly just as the State imposes those restrictions in its capitol area. It requires a municipality, if the legislative body of that municipality adopts an ordinance that restricts the carrying of firearms in that municipality’s essential municipal offices or places of legislative assembly, to post in a prominent location outside the affected offices and places a notice of the existence of that restriction.