Article 1, Section 16 of the Maine Constitution recognizes the right of each citizen to keep and bear arms and reads as follows:

“Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned.”

In Maine, generally, no state permit is required for the purchase of a rifle, shotgun, or handgun. But certain persons can have a firearm in their control only with a permit and some of them are[i]:

• A person who has been convicted of committing or found not criminally responsible by reason of insanity of committing a crime in this State that is punishable by imprisonment for a term of one year or more or a crime under the laws of the United States that is punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year;
• A person who has been convicted of a crime under the laws of any other state that is punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year. This does not include a crime a misdemeanor and is punishable by a term of imprisonment of 2 years or less; 
• A person who has been convicted of a crime under the laws of the United States in a proceeding in which the prosecuting authority was required to plead and prove that the person committed the crime with the use of a firearm against a person or any other dangerous weapon;
• A person who has been adjudicated in Maine or under the laws of the United States or any other state to have engaged in conduct as a juvenile that, if committed by an adult, would have been a disqualifying conviction;
• A person who is subject to an order of a court of the United States or a state, territory, commonwealth or tribe that restrains that person from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner, as defined in 18 United States Code, Section 921(a), of that person or a child of the intimate partner of that person, or from engaging in other conduct that would place the intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the intimate partner or the child.

The main government offices that deal with issues related to firearms are:

Department of Public Safety

Maine State Police, Licensing Division

164 State House Station

Augusta, Maine 043333-0164

Phone: (207) 624-7210

and

Attorney General

6 State House Station

Augusta, Maine 04333

Phone: (207) 626-8800

http://www.me.state.us.ag/homepage.htm         

[i] 15 M.R.S. § 393