Maine Governor’s Staff Reported a Tweet From the Firearms Policy Coalition as a Threat

If you’re familiar with the Firearms Policy Coalition’s social media presence, you probably know their stock response to basically any call for infringement on civil rights: “Fuck you. No.” It’s not only short, but it gets attention tends to get attention and conveys the FPC’s message that they won’t acquiesce to limits on gun rights. Infringers are told that they don’t get to be friendly while threatening to use armed agents of the state to harass and destroy the lives of peaceable people.

Most people would see this much like the rattle of a diamondback, with the sound being basically a clue not to violate the snake’s boundaries. Should you FA and continue approaching a snake that’s coiled and rattling, there’s a good chance you’ll  FO. The FPC has a well-established track record of suing federal state and local governments that infringe on citizens’ rights.

The staff of Maine’s Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, apparently didn’t take kindly to receiving that kind of direct, unambiguous feedback.

When the governor’s social media people saw FPC’s response to a suggestion that Maine should further infringe on gun owners’ rights, they didn’t see it as defensive communication. Despite the absence of anything even approaching an actual threat of violence, they did the state equivalent of tagging the Secret Service, referring the message to the state law enforcement agency responsible for the Governor’s safety.

While it would be easy to chalk this up to exceptionally delicate sensibilities and a perhaps overly fertile imagination of a social media intern, the overreaction is noteworthy. Social media management these days is a real job, generally done by real career PR people. What’s more, reporting by the Maine Wire shows that the governor’s press secretary sent links to the tweet to other staffers, one of which ended up in the hands of Governor Mills’ executive protection unit.

This wasn’t even a one-time overreaction by the Governor’s staff. A staffer had also forwarded a cartoon version of a state ballot to the police suggesting that it was a fraudulent use of a state seal rather than obvious satire.

“…Gov. Janet Mills’ personnel referred social media posts from the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Maine Wire to the State Police, flagging them for the governor’s Executive Protection Unit.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…*deep breath*…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA pic.twitter.com/qWpHhgWeJU

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) July 17, 2024

 

This is something we see all too often in politics. Recent events have shown there certainly are bad people out there who really would harm elected officials and candidates. That does not, however, mean everyone who criticizes or disagrees with a politician, even using profanity, constitutes a threat or intends physical harm. The difference should have been perfectly clear in both of these cases.

Trying to pretend that legitimate criticism and dissent — even if rude — is actually somehow a threat is an attempt to hotwire around the clear protections that speech enjoys in this country.

While this kind of “fire in a crowded theater” argument is popular among officials trying to quash criticism, it’s a blatantly unconstitutional violation of First Amendment rights. Ultimately, “Fuck you. No.” doesn’t threaten anyone. It’s just a (salty) expression of disagreement. Rather than trying to intimidate and muzzle the Governor’s critics, her staff should spend their time trying to defend her policies…to the extent that they can.