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Last year’s horrifying shooting in Lewiston shook Maine to its core. We are still mourning the 18 precious lives lost and the countless lives shattered on Oct. 25, 2023.
A year later, the shock, horror and pain still remain fresh. This tragedy prompted needed and overdue debates and discussions of policy changes — at all levels of government — that could prevent another community from going through the trauma that is still felt today.
It also prompted elected leaders — notably Gov. Janet Mills and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden — to reconsider their long held positions on restrictions on firearms. We believe that such reflective changes, that both Golden and Mills publicly explained, are not flip-flops but the reasoned response to a mass shooting happening in your hometown, your home state.
The changes in Maine’s gun laws and funding increases to expand and improve mental health services that were approved by lawmakers this year are important steps to making Maine a safer and more supportive place. That work, especially with identified gaps in information sharing and potential weaknesses in existing laws, must continue when the Legislature gets to work next year.
That work should be guided by the recommendations of the several reviews of events surrounding the Lewiston shooting.
Soon after the Oct. 25 mass shooting, state lawmakers and Mills created a commission, and lawmakers gave it needed subpoena power, to review events preceding the shooting. The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office, which responded to warnings about the deteriorating behavior of shooter Robert Card II, also initiated a review of its actions. Card was a member of the Army National Guard, which also did an examination.
Those examinations showed an all too common pattern: Warning signs were missed and needed follow up did not happen. As a result, Card was not connected with the mental health help he so clearly needed. He was able to retain his guns despite Maine’s recent adoption of a yellow flag law, meant as a tool to remove weapons from those who are found to be a danger to themselves and others, while respecting 2nd Amendment rights.
These findings have already prompted needed action.
A supplemental budget, passed by state lawmakers and signed by the governor in April, included significant new investments in mental health services. New crisis receiving centers, which are places where people in crisis can go to ask for help and support, are slated for Lewiston and Aroostook and Penobscot counties. Mobile crisis units, which respond to people in crisis, will be expanded and strengthened. The budget also included additional funding to hire more state police officers and to respond to the significant increase in the number of mental health assessments under the state’s yellow flag law.
These are important and needed investments, but given the persistent shortage of mental health treatment options for many Mainers, more work must be done, especially to break down artificial barriers that make accessing this care too difficult for far too many people.
Maine lawmakers also approved new restrictions on guns. A new 72-hour waiting period to buy a firearm went into effect in August. The measure became law without the governor’s signature. The Legislature passed, and Mills signed, laws expanding background checks for advertised sales of weapons and strengthening the penalties for the transfer of guns to people who are prohibited from having them, often for past convictions. Mills and lawmakers also took needed steps to bolster and clarify the state’s “yellow flag” law, although it still needs improvement to provide an avenue for families to petition the courts directly to remove firearms from someone in crisis. After the Legislature’s failure to pass a stronger red flag law, a citizen’s initiative effort has been launched to do so.
On the federal level, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has introduced a bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Angus King, to require U.S. military services to fully utilize states’ crisis intervention programs, like Maine’s yellow flag law. This comes after reviews found that the Army Reserve failed to share some relevant information about Card with state law enforcement officials in Maine. This information may have enabled police to invoke Maine’s yellow flag law.
Maine’s elected leaders took important steps this year to improve gun safety, to increase access to mental health care, and to support victims of crimes, particularly those in Lewiston. Given long waits for mental health care and identified gaps in various systems and policies, there is still a lot of work to be done.
