Most of you have probably already read or hear of the mass killing in Maine yesterday evening that has left at least 16 dead (although others sources say 18 or even 20) and scores more wounded. Since security footage shows him using an AR style rifle, the anti-gun nuts are already foaming at the mouth demanding that ARs be banned. The suspect has been identified as a 40-year-old man named Robert Card. The Independent indicates that "Mr Card is a member of the US Army Reserves and a certified firearms instructor, who officials said had recently made threats to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility and had reported mental health issues, including hearing voices." He was also "reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this summer and then released."
Although the earlier reports on this story indicated that Card shot up a bowling alley and a bar, all of the accounts have now settled on it being a bowling alley and a restaurant. That is probably because under the law in Maine, it is illegal to carry a firearm into "[e]stablishments licensed for on-premises consumption of liquor, if the premises are posted." Meaning that the shootings probably occurred in gun free zones. Card may be crazy, but he's not stupid.
And speaking of crazy, it is, of course, illegal under Federal law for a person adjudicated as mentally defective or who has been committed to a mental institution to possess any firearms or ammunition. Maine law also makes it illegal for a person that has been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital to possess a firearm.
So, once again, we have a situation where gun control laws already on the books would have stopped a killer if they had been enforced, but they weren't. And there seems to be a lot of these mass killers that had received psychological treatment and counseling. Perhaps that is where we should focus investigative efforts and new laws.
Pretty sure that's impossible. I mean, there are laws against it, right?
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