At the news conference it was stated that Maine's yellow law went into effect in 2019. Since July of 2020 it's actually been utilized over 80 times.
Last week's mass shooting in Lewiston is renewing scrutiny of a 3-year-old state law that aims to keep guns away from potentially dangerous people. But it's unclear whether police considered using Maine's so-called "yellow flag" law against the suspected gunman. And critics say Maine's law could...
www.mainepublic.org
The main difference between a yellow and red law is that a yellow law requires a medical professional, in addition to a judge, to sign off on removing and denying access to guns. Other than that, the laws are the same.
Ask the I-Team: Is Maine's 'yellow flag' law similar to 'red flag' laws?
As for lax laws, first there are federal laws on guns of which there are a great many.
Gun law in the United States - Wikipedia
Then Maine has their own laws regarding guns. Some of which are here on different pages.
Title 25, §2001-A: Threatening display of or carrying concealed weapon
However in a case like this there were some hurdles. One was that it doesn't appear that LE ever actually met with RC in person. I'm sure we'll hear more about this, but after making threats and the family expressing concerns, LE never interviewed RC. Why was that? What happened? Secondly even if they had determined he needed help, I'm not sure there would have been services available for him. Maine has a history of "shipping out" their mental health issues to Massachusetts. A lot of the mental health facilities closed down, Maine is left with only two for the entire state. And the bed count has drastically decreased. BMHI used to house and treat over 2000 patients, that same facility is now down to 50 beds. EMMC used to have a mental health ward, that's now gone. Same with Maine Med and most of the hospitals in the area. I believe in Aroostook County there is still a 30 bed holding area in Fort Fairfield, but it's only a temporary solution. The majority of patients are shipped to Boston. That's expensive and insurance companies can balk. Point is, even if his family had brought him into a medical facility, he probably would have been released to his family. Just like LE relied on his family to make sure he didn't have access to weapons.
Good news is gun crime is very low in Maine, despite its "lax laws" status. In 2021, 178 people died by firearms in Maine. 158 of those deaths were suicide, 17 were homicide, and 2 were unintentional.
Maine's 'yellow flag' law scrutinized as 'woefully weak' after mass shooting
So what's the crystal ball to predict a crime or how to prevent something like this ever happening again? I'm waiting to hear more about what happened in this circumstance. Maybe we'll find a way this criminal could have been stopped, but how to relates to others may be hard. This one is different in that he did this in a small town where he grew up. It makes sense that he knew these people, he had strong family connections, and seemed to have a good support system and he didn't have radical beliefs.