Posted on 10/30/2023 7:22:05 PM PDT by DoodleBob
Facts are now emerging in the case of Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card which suggest a string of failures, at least to follow through, and at least one success on the part of a firearms retailer, preceded the Oct. 25 tragedy in Lewiston, Maine that left 18 people dead and 13 injured.
And there is something else: Maine is a gun rights friendly state, yet none of the victims was apparently able to fight back.
CNN is reporting that the Maine National Guard “asked local police to check on” Card back on Sept. 16, after another soldier reported the suspect’s behavior, apparently indicating a concern Card would “snap and commit a mass shooting.”
The Associated Press reported that police across the state had been alerted in September to watch for Card, but evidently that alert didn’t result in contact with the Army reservist. One lawman, Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, did act on the tip he received from the Army Reserve about Card’s threats. He reportedly sent the alert to all law enforcement agencies in Maine, but acknowledged Card apparently could not be located. Merry’s jurisdiction encompasses Bowdoin, where the suspected killer resided. He could not immediately recall any follow-up, but the fact remains law enforcement was aware of Card’s troubles at least a month before the shooting.
There was one report worthy of notice. ABC News is reporting how firearms retailer Coastal Defense Firearms refused to complete the transfer of a suppressor (silencer) Card wanted to purchase because he acknowledged on a federal form he had been committed for a mental health issue. Retailer Rich LaChapelle told the news agency his staff allowed Card to complete the paperwork but when they spotted his answer to the mental health inquiry, they declined to complete the transaction.
At that point, Card left the business.
Ironically, LaChapelle is the president of the Lewiston City Council. As noted by the New York Post, LaChapelle suggested the mayhem could have been worse if Card had obtained the silencer because “survivors would not have been alerted by the sound of the gunfire and failed to seek cover.”
In the aftermath of the deadly rampage, anti-gunners including President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have called for additional gun controls, including bans on so-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines,” waiting periods and other measures.
But the suspected killer’s history shows the waiting period would not have mattered because he apparently legally purchased the rifle prior to his hospitalization, months before the shooting. The background check already exists, and by filling out the paperwork, Card tripped himself up allowing the retailer to deny the silencer purchase.
There is no small irony in that because Biden also called for repeal of the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects the firearms industry from junk lawsuits. It was LaChapelle’s business—a firearms dealership—which actually fulfilled its existing legal requirement by refusing to complete the transaction involving the suppressor.
Still, the Biden administration has continued its war on the firearms industry. Fox Business is reporting that the Department of Commerce has halted “most civilian firearm exports” for 90 days, allegedly citing national security concerns.
Card was found dead last Friday evening with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His body was in the back of a storage trailer about a mile from where his abandoned car was discovered near a boat ramp, several miles south from Lewiston, where the shooting occurred at two separate locations.
Responding to the push for more gun restrictions, the Second Amendment Foundation noted reports that at least one of the businesses targeted by the killer was a “gun-free zone” where patrons were asked to not bring firearms into the premises.
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, referring to the suspect’s “recent history of mental health problems,” noted there apparently had been no attempt to confiscate his firearms.
“The suspect’s reported condition this past summer should have made him a prohibited person from gun possession,” Gottlieb said. “The knee-jerk demands from anti-gunners, from Joe Biden on down, to penalize honest citizens amounts to a disgusting exploitation of a horrible tragedy for which one person alone is responsible. Disarming gun owners has never helped prevent a crime in the past, and it certainly won’t prevent tragedies in the future.”
Maine has a very fair and good Yellow Flag Law. Under that, law enforcement should have removed his firearms and immediately reported that he had been involuntarily committed to a mental institution.
This is a failure in follow thru.
>>And there is something else: Maine is a gun rights friendly state, yet none of the victims was apparently able to fight back.
Weren’t both of the main venues for the carnage gun-free victim zones?
Took 17 posts until that finally came up. LaChapelle has watched far too many Hollywood movies.
I, for one, am sick of the lunatics running the asylum!
We need three things to stop gun violence:
1. Get GOD back into all of our public venues (especially schools)
2. Start taking people with mental health problems as a serious matter
3. Decent fathers in the homes of children, especially for boys
And if even ONE of these is accomplished in this day and age, it will be a miracle. Best we can do is keep our powder dry and be eternally vigilant. :(
Note: Nowhere did I say ‘disarm the population.’ ;)
Another ignorant moron showing that all he knows about "silencers" is from the movies. The very best suppressors lower the sound of gunfire by about 30 dB. The sound of gunfire from a rifle is about 165 dB. A jackhammer is about 130 dB. So if you were in a bowling alley you wouldn't hear a jackhammer 50 feet away?
Maine needs more concealed carriers.
It’s an inverse incentive if the goal is that of total gun confiscation. The more shootings the better as far as lib-thinking goes. The Beltway gets tingles up their legs every time some nut shoots up a crowd, even though they were a well documented dangerous felon or mental case.
Both.
Gun laws don’t work.
Gun free zones are killing fields.
LE lets far too many killers *slip through the cracks*, for lack of a better term. Ignoring people who are known to be a credible thread can only mean they want this sort of thing to happen.
***A mentally ill person who didn’t get treatment or gets bad drug regimen treatment and is on the radar of Law enforcement inevitably goes postal.***
Long past time to reopen the mental hospitals closed in the 1970s. We rarely had mass shootings before that time. Two mass killings I can recall were when Richard Speck murdered a group of student nurses in 1966. He used a knife and strangled some, and Charles Whitman who used a 5 shot bolt action hunting rifle to kill others.
I sometimes think the Democrats want more mass shootings so they can call for more gun control. That is why the mental hospitals are not being re-opened.
Agree, and we need associated school reform as the unions put crazy thoughts into kids heads. case in point, a couple years ago 1% of kids identified as trans, now it's like 15%, that is 100% from nuts school curriculum's and indoctrination's.
The guy self reported to a mental facility, so it is on the DOCTORS? Was he even treated by a psychiatrist or was he turned over to a “mental health social worker”? What were the terms of his release and did they force compliance? When was his last outpatient visit to the mental facility did he show up, or did they just throw meds at him when he was released and say see you in six months?
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