Nasty news to wake up to: At least 22 dead, and 50 injured.

Maine mass shooting live updates: Sheltered Maine resident ‘locked and loaded’ during manhunt for mass shooting person of interest
A gunman killed at least 22 people in separate shootings across Lewiston, Maine, Wednesday night, according to law enforcement sources and reports. Maine mass shooting live updates: Sheltered Maine resident ‘locked and loaded’ during manhunt for mass shooting person of interest

The person of interest behind the deadly mass shooting in Maine is reportedly a trained firearms instructor believed to be in the Army Reserve, according to law enforcement sources in the state.

Robert Card, 40, was stationed out of Saco, Maine and reported “hearing voices” and threatened to shoot up the National Guard Base where he was stationed, the sources said.

Ignorant loudmouth Shannon Watts of Mom’s Demand Bloodshed naturally blames Maine’s allegedly lax gun laws; specifically a lack of a 72 hour waiting period to purchase a firearm, and a lack of a “red flag” law.

I blame something else. Card himself, of course; but…

According to law enforcement, CARD recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME. CARD was also reported to have been committed to mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released.

So… they have a crazy guy threatening to kill people. He gets committed to a psych ward…

And then let loose. Maybe that last part was a mistake.

Card was reportedly a firearms instructor; my guess is that he probably already had firearms, and a 72 hour waiting period would not have prevented this. Keeping the dangerous guy locked up would.

So what if Maine lacks a n-due process “red flag” law? Anyone who had been threatened by Card — that is, anyone and everyone assigned to that base — could have requested a perfectly normal protective order and requested any firearm be removed .

And why would they be removed, aside from the death threats? “[H]ave been committed to mental health facility.

That’s why; 18 U.S. Code § 922(g)(4). He was a prohibited person.

If he did have to buy his firearm for this slaughter, that would should have prevented him from buying one from licensed dealer. (And likely from people who knew him and knew he’d gone nuts.)

Someone was supposed to report Card’s committal to NICS. If the military committed him, well, we know the military has a major reporting problem.

Civil authorities aren’t much better.

It’s a little early to be blaming a lack of gun laws for this.

Something else that I hope to hear more about is Card’s auditory hallucinations. That’s common in schizophrenia. But as a retired nurse mentioned, 40 years old is an odd time for schizophrenia to pop up. It usually shows up much earlier in life.

Other things can cause hallucinations: Lewy Body Dementia, brain tumors. But something I ran across recently came to mind.

One of the adverse effects of the ChinCOVID pseudo-vaccine that’s been showing up is hallucinations. Doctor’s have noted it, and it shows up in studies. As a reservist apparently on active status (assigned to the base), there’s a good chance that Card received the ChinCOVID inoculations.

But that’s just speculation. Card is not yet in custody. But once caught (or his body found), maybe we’ll learn more about what caused his break.