The family of Robert Card, the shooter who took the lives of 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, last week, knew something was wrong five months ago. In May, his son and ex-wife reported his declining mental health to a Sagadahoc County sheriff, who said he would check into it. They thought it might have had something to do with hearing aids that he got in February that were causing him to have what they called “auditory hallucinations.”
In July, Card was doing his annual training with his Army Reserve unit at West Point when other reservists noticed that Card was acting strangely, accusing them of calling him a “pedophile” and then getting into a shoving match with one of them.
For that episode, Card was taken to a hospital for examination, after which he was transferred to Four Winds Hospital, a mental-health treatment facility. He spent two weeks there.
After being released, the Army ruled that Card should “not have a weapon, handle ammunition, or participate in live-fire activity.” This was based on one of Card’s range participants stating that he threatened several times to “shoot up” the place. He texted his superior that he was concerned that Card would “snap and commit a mass shooting.”
In August, Card visited the Coastal Defense Firearms store to pick up a silencer that he had ordered online. That involved a background check, which he passed. However, when he got to the store, he was required to complete another form, which asked, “Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution?”
He answered “yes.” Rick LaChapelle, the owner, told reporters that “as soon as he answered that ‘yes’, we knew automatically that this is disqualifying … that he’s not getting a silencer today.”
The rest is history. On October 25, in the space of about 10 minutes, Card shot 31 people at two different locations, killing 18 of them. He then committed suicide, and the police found his body three days later.
Questions are being raised. What about the sheriff who promised to call on Card and see if he needed any assistance? That never happened. The sheriff, with backup, did go to his residence, but when they heard him “moving around” inside, and knowing his skill as a firearms instructor, they left him alone.
What about the Army? According to the sheriff’s department, a unit commander assured his department that the Army was trying to get treatment for Card and that he thought it best “to let him have time to himself.”
What about Maine’s so-called “yellow flag” law? Emily Bader, a reporter for The Maine Monitor, which is operated by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, explained:
Maine enacted what’s called a “yellow flag” law, which basically means that only police can take guns or weapons away from a person they deem at risk. Police get a report or something that indicates a person may be [a] risk to themselves or others, [and] they bring them into protective custody….
Then [the police] have to seek, basically, approval from a medical practitioner [who] says that, yes, they agree that this person is a risk.
With that medical practitioner’s approval, they then bring it to a court, a judge grants the restriction and then police can take away that person’s weapons.
So, under Maine’s “yellow flag” law, it’s “arrest first, confiscate later.” But that didn’t happen because, according to Bader, “it slows things down … there’s just so many other steps that have to go into it, especially that medical practitioner.”
To review: Card began exhibiting signs of mental problems back in February. His family became concerned in May and alerted law enforcement, which did nothing.
In August he went to a military shooting range for an annual refresher course, exhibited strange behavior, issuing threats and getting into a shoving match with another reservist.
He purchased a silencer online, which involves a background check, which he passed. It was only when he showed up at a local gun store in September to pick it up that he was denied.
The family apparently thought using Maine’s “yellow flag” law was too onerous or complicated, and so didn’t start that process.
But, predictably, anti-gunners have the answer: more gun control. Democrat Jared Golden, the far-left member of the House of Representatives who represents Lewiston and sports a Freedom Index rating of just 26 out of 100, issued a statement of condolences and then announced his support for an assault weapons ban. In his announcement he asked for “forgiveness” from the community and victims’ families for his previous opposition to such a ban.
And of course anti-gun Joe Biden was equally quick on the draw:
I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfill their duty to protect the American people. Work with us to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers.
This is the very least we owe every American who will now bear the scars — physical and mental — of this latest attack.
