This is not a gun problem

A mentally ill killer is at large in Maine. Plus, the media is pretty imperfect at its best.

Bear with me, I have only minutes to pound out a story for today, and there’s a lot of news. So forgive the first draft (my high school English teacher is pounding his head on the table)

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There was another awful mass shooting last night, this one in Lewiston, Maine. I am familiar with that area; down-Mainers call it “LA” for “Lewiston-Auburn,” twin cities that sit on the Androscoggin river. Decades ago, it was one of the stops on my student long cross-country flight. Apropos of Maine, this shooting was at a bar and grill, then moved to a bowling alley. At least 16 people were killed, the AP reported.

It was also reported that the person of interest, 40-year-old Robert Card, was committed to a mental health facility last summer, and was possibly a military reservist. Then the AP continued to note in two paragraphs appended to the bottom of the article that Maine voters have rejected 72 hour waiting periods and background checks on private gun sales.

Certainly, a mentally ill person who was reported to have threatened to “shoot up” an Army base should not have a gun. I believe, when all the investigating is done, that Card likely legally purchased his gun or guns, but was not legally entitled to have them based on his mental status. This is the case is many, many, shootings and it’s one of the most unfortunate aspects of how America is handling gun control.

The answers always seem to cluster around “Second Amendment is a law that came straight from God, and don’t you dare touch it lest His angels smite you,” or “nobody should possess firearms except licensed law enforcement.” In reality, anyone, cop, military, or regular citizen, should not have a gun if they’re mentally ill or experiencing mental issues with anger or rage. The fact that yet another person who fits this category had a gun and killed many people indicates our lack of a system to deal with this is beyond failing—there has to be something there to fail, and we have nothing.

This kind of shooting can happen anywhere. If our politicians are so incapable of governing that they can’t figure out something as basic as mental health, addiction, overdoses on fentanyl, a southern border that’s not even a functioning sieve, and the fact that beheading babies and crushing cities in Ukraine are evil, then perhaps we voters need to take more drastic action.

Also, the AP is not perfect and doesn’t report perfectly. They couldn’t even get a map of New England right. They omitted the entire state of New Hampshire.

One more thing. The media needs to understand and always disclose that the Gaza Health Ministry is a propaganda shop, and that the UNRWA is an official anti-Israel arm of the United Nations, which is obsessed with sanctioning Israel.

Well that’s all the time I have. I’m sorry there’s little positive to say, but with prayer and sunlight we can all have a decent day.