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It can’t be said enough: The horrific mass shooting in Lewiston on Oct. 25 requires answers and action. Even as multiple investigations into the facts involved get underway, it is already quite clear that various missed warnings, system failures and statutory shortcomings were involved. This points to the need for a multifaceted response at various levels of government.
As just one example, there needs to be more clarity and stronger requirements about how the U.S. military interacts with state laws designed to temporarily limit firearm access for people demonstrated to be a risk to themselves or others — like Maine’s yellow flag law and New York’s red flag law. Both seemingly could and should have been engaged in the case of Lewiston shooter Robert Card.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is currently working on a bill that would appear to provide the needed clarity and requirements. Without legislative text yet, it is hard to fully evaluate the forthcoming proposal. But reporting on the bill and remarks from Collins’ office are encouraging.
“Based on press reports, it appears that the military units with which Robert Card was associated had not acted to invoke either New York’s red flag law or Maine’s yellow flag law, despite numerous warning signs that lead to Mr. Card’s hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital in New York, and the Army’s decision to prevent him from having access to weapons, ammunition, and participation in live fire exercises,” Collins spokesperson Annie Clark said in a statement to the Bangor Daily News editorial board last week. “This led Senator Collins to initiate the request for an [Army inspector general] investigation. In the meantime, she is working on legislation that would require each branch of the military services to fully utilize states’ red and yellow flag laws when appropriate to protect an individual from harming him or herself or others.”
This is a needed push, as part of a larger conversation about improving systems and laws to prevent other shootings like this. Card’s concerning behavior led him to spend about two weeks in a New York psychiatric facility while in that state for U.S. Army Reserve training. The military had barred him from handling weapons and live ammunition two months before the shooting. Members of Maine law enforcement were also warned about his behavior and the concerns of fellow soldiers. And yet it seems that neither Army nor law enforcement officials fully engaged with the red flag law in New York or yellow flag law in Maine to limit his access to firearms amid the alarming behavior.
It should go without saying that this failure of systems, and failure to fully engage with existing public safety tools, must not be repeated. As we said in early November, “If the U.S. military has determined that someone shouldn’t have access to firearms within the service, that person should also then lose access to firearms in civilian life (at least for a period of time, and with proper balance of Second Amendment rights).” It is too soon to know if or how Collins’ bill would match with this goal specifically, but there is good reason to expect that requiring the military to fully pursue the process for state red and yellow flag laws would apply the same general principle.
The anticipated legislation is one specific piece in a larger conversation, but it is an important piece. As Collins continues to work on this needed and appreciated proposal at the federal level, state lawmakers in Maine and elsewhere also need to be moving toward stronger red flag laws.
The military element was not the only apparent shortcoming in Card’s case, and we remain convinced that Maine’s yellow flag law should be updated and strengthened to an actual red flag law to better address barriers for families and law enforcement trying to use it. The tragedy in Lewiston was also a failure of systems and statute, and requires this kind of reassessment at all levels of government.
