Maine Mass-Shooting Update: So, It Wasn’t the Gun?

by Steve MacDonald

The 18 lives lost in Lewiston, Maine, can’t be returned, but the political arguments never die. And while we mourn any needless loss of life, the world that took it is not an accident. Some people did something to borrow from the illustrious Ilhan Omar. Deliberate legal, social, and cultural choices made over years and decades. This tragedy did not happen in a vacuum.

The Associated Press Reports that lawyers for 100 surveys of the victims of Robert Card have begun the process of suing the US Army for failure to do something about what now seems to have been terribly obvious. It wasn’t the gun.

Related: Since You Can’t Stop The Killers, You’d Best Not Disarm the Citizens.

The individual notices of claim say the Army failed to act despite being aware of the reservist’s mental health decline that led to his hospitalization and left him paranoid, delusional and expressing homicidal ideations — including producing a “hit list” of those he wanted to attack.

“It is difficult to conceive of a case in which Army personnel could have more warning signs and opportunities to intervene to prevent a service member from committing a mass shooting than what happened in the case of Army Reservist Robert Card,” the lawyers wrote.

Robert Card was a mess, and the Army and civilian law enforcement had the opportunity to intervene, which suggests that with or without the mess, the gun is innocent. And that matters because the same folks who pointed at Robert Card’s actions as a reason to treat law-abiding citizens like him (just in case) did something that ensured the victims would be disarmed and Card, whatever his mental state, could still identify soft targets. These same people claim that you don’t need personal firearms because the armed agents chosen by them can protect you.

If that were true, there would be no reason for the lawsuit because no one would have dropped the ball, and no one would have died, yet here we are.


GraniteGrok.com is a reader-supported endeavor, and we can’t continue without your support. Please consider a monthly subscription donation in any amount. It goes a long way to helping offset the rising cost of everything. One-time donations are also always welcome. If you would like to donate by check, email me at steve@granitegrok.com.

Author

  • Steve MacDonald

    Steve is a long-time New Hampshire resident, award-winning blogger, and a member of the Board of Directors of The 603 Alliance. He is the owner of Grok Media LLC and the Managing Editor, Executive Editor, assistant editor, Editor, content curator, complaint department, Op-ed editor, gatekeeper (most likely to miss typos because he has no editor), and contributor at GraniteGrok.com. Steve is also a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, The Republican Volunteer Coalition, has worked for or with many state and local campaigns and grassroots groups, and is a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.

    View all posts
Share to...