“A tragedy beyond comprehension,” a government official called the mass shooting Wednesday evening in Lewiston, Maine.
A nation accustomed to senseless slaughter disagrees.
It is tragically reminiscent of The Onion’s famous 2014 headline, always apt: “‘No way to prevent this,’ says only a nation where this happens regularly.”
As I write this, a manhunt is underway for the coward, whom I have not named – because shame is part of the thrill for such deviants – and who has been accused of shooting up a bowling alley full of children before he unleashes a shooting spree. bullets in a bar four miles away.
At least 18 people are dead. Ten of those victims have yet to be identified – recalling the Uvalde massacre, children whose faces were erased beyond recognition.
Thirteen are still injured. Those who survive will live with this trauma forever.
As for the shooting suspect himself, in the months leading up to this, he was swinging all the red flags.
As I write this, a manhunt is underway for the coward, whom I have not named – because shame is part of the thrill for such deviants – and who has been accused of shooting up a bowling alley full of children before he a blaze of bullets in a bar four miles away.
At least 18 people are dead. Ten of those victims have yet to be identified – recalling the Uvalde massacre, children whose faces were erased beyond recognition. Thirteen others are injured. Those who survive will live with this trauma forever. As for the shooting suspect himself, in the months leading up to this, he was waving all the red flags. (Image: Body bags removed from Schemengee’s Bar, Thursday, after mass shooting).
He is a “highly trained” Army reservist who, according to a fellow soldier, was one of the best shooters in their unit, but was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for two weeks this summer after reporting that he was “hearing voices.”
His superiors called the police in mid-July because they were concerned that he was behaving erratically. He was taken to an Army hospital at West Point for evaluation – where he was deployed to train cadets; any findings are still unknown.
He recently threatened to shoot up the National Guard base in Saco, Maine. He frequented the bowling alley and bar that were targeted Wednesday night, and for months he told relatives that he was sure people at both places were talking badly about him — that he was overhearing these nonexistent conversations.
“He really believed he heard people saying things,” his sister-in-law Katie O’Neill told The Daily Beast. ‘He got angry and claimed we didn’t believe him. We tried to listen and tell him no one was talking about him.”
So despite his family and friends telling the media that this is “a rational, understanding person,” as a fellow reservist told CNN — or “the most loving, hardworking and kind person I know” as O’Neill claims — it’s clear: he was a known threat to public safety.
“That’s not who he is,” O’Neill said.
This is EXACTLY who he is.
He allegedly planned this massacre at two different locations, devised a strategy, carried out this massacre with purpose, and then successfully escaped – possibly by crossing state lines into Massachusetts – leaving parts of Maine completely shut down.
This shooting suspect, like so many others who are mentally ill, retained sufficient core competencies and sufficient powers of persuasion to successfully maim and kill.
The White House and the entire country have lowered the flag. What about raising the bar for gun ownership?
How about finally addressing one of America’s greatest public health crises: the disadvantaged white male—almost always the mass shooter profile—who takes out his failures, grievances, and aggression on unwitting citizens and schoolchildren?
But here was Maine Governor Janet Mills at the press conference Thursday morning, flanked by an array of police and government officials waiting their turn on stage, as if this were an awards ceremony – thanks, thoughts and prayers! – instead of a sober recognition of what this is: a complete failure of local, state and federal law enforcement, a mass murderer now waiting in our midst still on the run.
He recently threatened to shoot up the National Guard base in Saco, Maine. He frequented the bowling alley and bar that were targeted Wednesday night, and for months he told relatives that he was sure people at both places were talking badly about him — that he was overhearing these nonexistent conversations.
But here was Maine Governor Janet Mills at the press conference Thursday morning, flanked by an array of police and government officials waiting their turn on stage, as if this were an awards ceremony – thanks, thoughts and prayers! – rather than a sober recognition of what this is: a complete failure of local, state and federal law enforcement, a mass murderer waiting in our midst and now still on the run.
No, Mills moved right past this atrocity and wanted to put it in the rearview mirror.
“This is a dark day for Maine,” she said. “I know it’s hard to think about healing when our hearts are broken… We will heal together.”
Talk about tone deaf. Where’s the outrage? Where is the call right now, the eyes of the world on you, to demand sensible gun reform?
How could Mills not take this moment to note that the AR-15 rifle, a modified version used by this savage, is the weapon of choice of mass shooters across America – precisely because it kills so many people so quickly and the bullets are designed to take apart the human body, liquefy vital organs, split skulls and turn bones to dust?
Maybe because Governor Mills is in danger. Maybe because she ran for gun control legislation in 2018, which she promptly abandoned when she won her election. Perhaps because she wouldn’t even support a proposed “red flag” law that would have allowed judges to temporarily block a person in trouble’s access to guns. Instead, she compromised on a so-called “yellow flag” alternative, which tells you everything you need to know about the gun lobby in America.
Want to know what gun laws Maine has on the books? Almost none.
There are no state required background checks to purchase a gun in Maine. No ban on assault rifles, high capacity magazines or bump stocks. You do not need a permit to own a gun, either for concealed or open carry. There’s no three-day wait to buy one. And no requirement that domestic violence weapons be confiscated.
“I know the people of Lewiston are suffering immeasurable pain,” Mills said at the news conference, crediting herself with “working through the night,” as if that wasn’t the least she could do.
Of course, we know how the debate will develop in the coming days: the gun lobby will blame the untreated mentally ill. Advocates for the mentally ill will call for stricter gun controls.
Can’t we all agree on the obvious: that deep reform is needed on both sides?
“This city did not deserve this terrible attack on its citizens, its peace of mind and its sense of security,” Mills said Thursday.
That indeed did not happen. If only there was someone in a position of power, campaigning to prevent this very possibility, who could do something about it.