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It has been nearly a year since Army Reservist Robert Card II opened fire on innocent people just going about their lives in Lewiston. Card killed 18 people and injured 13 more.
Multiple reports, from the Army and from the independent state commission created to review the shooting, have detailed the many decisions and failures that led up to Card’s heinous act. Those reports have emphasized something that has been clear for quite some time: The military needs to improve the way it interacts with state crisis intervention laws, also known as red or yellow flag laws.
The long-awaited bill from Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins focusing on this issue has thankfully arrived, now that various reviews have concluded. The Department of Defense should quickly embrace this legislation, and Congress should waste little time in making it law.
Approximately 20 states, including Maine, have the good sense to have some sort of yellow or red flag law on the books, providing a process to temporarily remove firearms from people who have demonstrated they are a risk to themselves or others. These laws can thread a critical needle in balancing imminent public safety risks with the rights and due process protections of the people involved.
As we saw, with tragic effect in Lewiston, the U.S. military still has work to do to make sure that it is fully engaging these state laws when a service member presents a potential threat. Card’s behavior, known to his military unit and supervisors, should have triggered action. Military officials did not share all of the relevant information with law enforcement. The state commission has also found that law enforcement “had sufficient probable cause” to initiate Maine’s yellow flag law in Card’s case. Those local law enforcement officers may have been better equipped to initiate that process with more information from Card’s Army Reserve unit about his mental health.
While there have been attempts at blame shifting between military and law enforcement, there should be little doubt that the Army Reserve could have done a better job sharing information with state and local authorities. This legislation can go a long way in making sure that does not happen again.
The Collins bill, also co-sponsored by independent U.S. Sen. Angus King, would make important strides forward in this regard. The bill would require the military to “fully utilize” state crisis intervention laws and fully participate in judicial proceedings.
“While the shooter was responsible for his horrific actions, multiple independent investigations revealed that there were numerous missed opportunities to potentially intervene and prevent this tragedy,” Collins said in a press release announcing the bill. “This bill would facilitate effective communication and coordination between state agencies and military service branches, thereby helping to keep our communities safe and ensuring that service members in crisis get the assistance they need, without infringing upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”
“We cannot bring back our friends and family members we lost last October, but we can take steps to fix the cracks in the system that led to the tragedy,” King said in his statement as part of the press release.
The new federal bill was also welcomed by Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.
“I thank Senator Collins for her thoughtful work on this legislation and Senator King for cosponsoring it,” Mills said in her own press release. “Providing the military with this authority will equip them with another tool to address potentially dangerous situations among military personnel and close communication gaps, which will help protect people, prevent violence, and save lives.”
Importantly, the bill would continue existing federal standards for maintaining due process within state crisis intervention programs, as highlighted in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting. That law supported the creation of these state programs with grant funding as long as they maintained Second Amendment and due process protections for the person temporarily having their firearms removed.
This proposed legislation from Collins and King is much needed at the federal level to ensure that the military is working with state crisis intervention laws. We must not have other service members in crisis slipping through the cracks in our systems with horrific impacts on the community at large.
