Gov. Le Page signed the bill 652 into law this afternoon; it takes effect 90 days after the legislature adjourns - so, probably mid-October a CHL will become optional. Maine has had unlicensed open carry for many, many years; one weird glitch in the law had been that you couldn't have the firearm loaded while in a car. So if you wanted to UOC, you had to be constantly unloading/reloading while entering/exiting your car
-- have to be able to legally own a gun
-- minimum age of 21 (unless active or former military, in which case 18 - Le Page insisted on that)
-- removed requirement to have the handgun unloaded while inside a car
I'm on the board of Gun Owners of Maine, so watched all the inside baseball over the past six months. An amazing amount of work to make this happen, I'm incredulous the finish line has been crossed
