The shooting in Lewiston, Maine last year was always going to lead to intense gun control discussions there. After all, Maine is a rare pro-gun blue state. They've rejected plenty of gun control over the years, but that was before a massacre in their state.

Gov. Janet Mills has resisted most of the calls and offered up her own package that, while not great, could have been worse.

For example, they could have included Maine Dem's latest demand, a 72-hour waiting period for gun sales.

A second bill proposes a 72-hour waiting period between when a gun is purchased and when it can be picked up. Yet another would ban devices that convert guns from semi-automatic to automatic.

Sen. Peggy Rotundo, who represents Lewiston where 18 people were killed Oct. 25, said her community is still healing.

“I come from a community with broken hearts and shattered lives,” she said. “I come from a community where many people are still afraid to go out in public. I come from a community where there are families who worry when their children go off to school and wonder if those children will come home safely at night.”

She said while she can’t bring back the 18 people who were killed Oct. 25, she will work as a legislator to make changes where possible. She’s sponsoring the bill for the 72-hour waiting period, which failed to pass last year.

She believes the bill may succeed this time around because she said the landscape in Maine has changed since the shootings.

In other words, she knows good and well this has nothing to do with Lewiston, but she's pushing it because the state seems more receptive to gun control as a whole.

Let's remember that the Lewiston killer had his guns for quite some time before he started shooting up the town. A waiting period wouldn't do a damn thing to stop him. It wouldn't do much to stop any other mass murderer in the making, either. They're more than happy to wait a few days to pick up their guns.

For example, let's remember that Florida has long had a waiting period. Did it stop Parkland? No. It didn't stop Jacksonville, either.

See, waiting periods aren't about stopping violence. It's about making it more and more difficult for you to purchase a firearm in that state. That's it. That's the whole reason.

Now, there's some evidence that waiting periods can help to reduce suicides. People can't get a gun immediately and then think a bit about it and decide they don't want to take their own lives. I'm skeptical of this evidence because, well, so much other gun-related research is BS so I can't help it.

Yet note that Rotundo doesn't mention that at all. She just talks about Lewiston and the lives lost there. In other words, she's going to leverage Lewiston for all its worth to get any gun control bit she's long wanted and been denied.

This kind of opportunism disgusts me. My hope is that it disgusts enough people in Maine that this goes nowhere and Rotundo finds herself out of a state job very, very soon.