AP files this from Portland, Maine:
Portland police received more than 65 calls Monday reporting that a young man was walking through the Parkside neighborhood and the Back Cove area with an AR-15-style assault weapon. Justin Dean, 24, insisted he wasn’t making any sort of statement but rather had the loaded rifle for protection while exercising his Second Amendment rights….
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When police caught up to Dean on a street near his apartment, they determined he wasn’t breaking any laws and let him continue on his way. Dean said he then spent the next few hours walking to a post office to mail a letter in an outside mailbox and walking around the 3.5-mile Back Cove walking trail.
Supporters of gun rights in Maine said the guy’s armed stroll was a “tone deaf” attempt to support the Second Amendment, and also no way can municipalities like Portland make their own laws in response to this kind of event. “Politically, frankly it’s virtually impossible,” Jeff Weinstein of the Maine Gun Owners Association told reporters.
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