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Jared Golden of Lewiston represents Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
I was 567 miles away when I learned that a mass shooting had broken out at a bowling alley a half-mile away from my family’s home in Lewiston. My initial thoughts turned to the victims. How many were killed and wounded? Once I understood that the shooter remained at large, like many others, my thoughts turned to the safety of my family, friends and the entire community.
For too many, their worst fears were confirmed when they learned of the loss of a loved one. In all, 18 of our neighbors were killed and 13 more wounded in the deadliest mass shooting in Maine and the 9th-deadliest in American history.
Fear radiated outward from the Lewiston-Auburn community, where tens of thousands of people were under a shelter-in-place order during the two-day manhunt, and countless other Mainers’ lives were disrupted by the threat of a killer on the loose.
As a Marine Corps veteran who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, I am familiar with violent death, including — unfortunately — the death of innocents. I thought I had left those experiences behind. The Lewiston shooting laid bare the false belief I held that Mainers were insulated from the mass shootings that had happened in other American communities.
The day following the shooting I returned home from Washington to be with my family and community, and I called for the ban of weapons like the one used in Lewiston.
I had opposed this policy in the past. It’s not easy to admit being wrong. But I believe I was.
I am now looking to the future. Congressional gridlock prohibits meaningful federal action, leaving Maine to fend for itself.
This is a difficult situation for our state. We have a proud tradition of responsible gun ownership and take seriously the Second Amendment right afforded by the U.S. Constitution. I believe the Second Amendment is rooted in self-defense and protection of the family and home. I own an A1 Government model rifle to defend myself and my family. This right and access to firearms matter to me greatly.
But the Second Amendment is not absolute. Already the National Firearms Act limits and regulates the possession of not only machine guns, but also short-barreled shotguns and rifles that are deemed a unique threat to society. It is the job of the government, the courts, and the people to seek a balance between the individual right and the common good, particularly as it relates to public safety.
With this and the Lewiston shooting in mind, I offer the following input:
A three-day waiting period would not have stopped Robert Card, the shooter in Lewiston. He purchased the gun he used months in advance. Expanding background checks to private gun sales would similarly have had no effect. These and other proposals, such as a bump stock ban or an expanded “yellow flag” law to replace the one that already could have been used to stop Card, are unresponsive to the facts of our local tragedy. They would create new barriers to gun ownership of all kinds, with no distinction between a .22 hunting rifle and the weapons carried by soldiers on the battlefield.
I don’t believe proposals like these would have saved a single life in Lewiston. But if Robert Card had not had an AR-style weapon, we likely would be mourning fewer deaths today.
These weapons are built for maximum lethality. That’s why they were involved in most of the deadliest shootings in our history. According to analysis by my office, they are three times deadlier in mass shootings than other firearms. They are even more deadly when aimed at children: In school shootings, an average of 15 people are killed when these weapons are used, compared to four when they are not.
And this for me gets to the heart of the matter: We cannot uphold the Second Amendment and guarantee another mass shooting will not happen. The problem with gun control measures like those under consideration in the State House is they go too far in infringing on individual rights but still leave the public vulnerable to mass fatalities. To reduce the number of dead when shootings like Lewiston’s inevitably happen, we must limit and regulate access to the most lethal weapons on the market — including the Ruger SFAR .308, AR-platform semi-automatic rifle used by Card.
That’s why my proposal is straightforward: We should end the sale of new AR-style rifles in Maine and regulate those already in circulation, similar to permitting laws that have been required in Maine before. The Lewiston shootings ushered in a sad new reality for Maine. We who want to own the most lethal weapons should accept a regular review process that could screen out those with evil intent or who have lost control of their mind, such that they are capable of a mass shooting.
Some gun owners will say my proposal goes too far or that nothing should be done at all. Others will say it’s too narrow. But the calculus is simple: Maine must find a balance between protecting individual rights and protecting our community from the destructiveness of mass shootings.
