AUGUSTA, Maine — When the Legislature adjourned last week after passing several gun control bills in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting, advocacy groups on opposite sides of the debate called the measures either “lifesaving” or “extreme.”
But those most affected by the massacre had differing views and plenty of criticism for how lawmakers responded in its aftermath.
Interviews with survivors and family members of victims conducted ahead of Thursday, which marks six months since the shooting, revealed a range of reactions. One said lawmakers took a few, but not enough, positive steps. Another criticized legislators for pushing “an agenda” that would not have stopped 40-year-old Robert Card II from carrying out the Oct. 25, 2023, rampage at a bowling alley and bar.
Legislators from Lewiston and its twin city of Auburn also had divergent views on the passage of Democrat-backed bills to require 72-hour waiting periods for gun purchases and ban bump stocks that let semi-automatic weapons fire rapidly, along with Gov. Janet Mills’ plan to tweak Maine’s “yellow flag” law to make it easier for police to use, expand background checks to advertised gun sales and fund various mental health initiatives. Each bill awaits Mills’ signature.
The lengthy, emotional and complicated debates over the response to the country’s deadliest mass shooting in 2023 spotlighted Maine’s status as a liberal state with lax gun laws, strong hunting traditions and — before last year, at least — few homicides and mass shootings.
Legislators in other states have responded differently to mass shootings. For example, Connecticut lawmakers approved an assault-style weapons ban after a gunman killed 20 kids and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. This year, Iowa allowed trained teachers and staff to carry guns in school after a teen killed a student and principal in January.
“How could we not appreciate people who are trying to do something when nothing’s been done for so long?” said Arthur Barnard, who left Schemengees Bar and Grille a few minutes before the gunman walked in that Wednesday night in October and killed his son, Arthur “Artie” Strout, a 42-year-old father of five, along with others in a pool league.
Still, Barnard said Maine lawmakers missed the mark by not changing a 2014 state law banning registries of privately owned guns nor considering how people could get around new requirements by meeting privately to exchange firearms.
“The concept is good,” Barnard said of the various gun control bills. “But what happens to keep these weapons from being lost in the wind as soon as they’re sold privately?”
Bobbi Nichols, who survived the rampage at Just-In-Time Recreation but whose 53-year-old sister, Tricia Asselin, died at the bowling alley, said none of the bills approved this year would have prevented a mass shooting and that she feels lawmakers “do things with an agenda instead of an open mind.”
Card, the Army reservist from Bowdoin who carried out the Lewiston shooting after family and peers had warned police for months of his declining mental health, threats and access to guns, legally purchased the semi-automatic rifle he used in the rampage and other weapons found by his body before he was hospitalized in July for mental health treatment. A 48-hour manhunt after the shooting ended when police found Card dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“It’s about holding people accountable for not following protocols,” Nichols said, criticizing Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office and Army Reserve personnel for not more proactively dealing with Card last year other than relying on Card’s family to secure his weapons.
“It wasn’t up to the family to get the guns,” Nichols, 57, added. “I know the Card family. They are good people. They wanted their son to get help.”
Nichols criticized lawmakers in both parties for not reaching out to victims like her for feedback and called for an “overhaul” of the mental health system, describing herself as lucky for getting into counseling after the shooting while others in Maine face long waitlists. She criticized gun-free zones, which Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, and other Republicans also mentioned.
“We didn’t deal with any of the actual circumstances [of the mass shooting],” Brakey said. “We only dealt with opportunistic, feel-good stuff.”
But Rep. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, who introduced a 72-hour waiting period bill before the shooting last year that was defeated when several Democrats joined Republicans in opposing it, said she feels passing the new measures is “healing” for her community. Craven noted research has pointed to waiting periods reducing gun suicides and homicides, with more than half of Maine’s 277 suicides in 2021 involving guns.
At the same time, Craven was disappointed the Legislature adjourned without taking up what she thinks could have helped prevent the Lewiston shooting — a “red flag” law allowing families to petition judges to temporarily remove weapons from loved ones at risk of harm. The bill from House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, did not have the votes, Craven said.
“Certainly the gun safety caucus is very intent on bringing it up next year,” Craven added.
Survivors and victims’ families have various plans to mark Thursday’s six-month anniversary.
Nichols said she regularly visits “Trish” at her grave in Auburn’s Gracelawn Memorial Park. Her “sports girl” sister, who is survived by a son, worked in software, at Just-In-Time Recreation and at Apple Valley Golf Course, where she excelled at cooking, assisting with tournaments and winning trophies of her own.
“My life is forever changed,” Nichols said. “I don’t know who I’m going to become, because I’m not the same person anymore.”
Barnard, 62, said he sometimes parks and sits outside Schemengees in the parking lot, thinking about his son, who would turn 43 on April 30. Barnard, a guitar player, also wrote a song he has performed since the shooting — “18 Souls.”
Barnard will take his son’s place at a national pool tournament next month in Las Vegas, with team jerseys featuring the names of Strout and two teammates who died on Oct. 25 — Joe Walker and Maxx Hathaway.
He wants to retire in three years after his grandchildren finish school and then advocate even more for fixing how “we have gotten so careless with our gun laws.”
“I’m certainly not going to disappear and fade into the sunset,” Barnard said. “I’m going to challenge people at the highest levels, as high as I can go.”
