On Oct. 25, 2023, at around 7 p.m. in Lewiston Maine, a gunman killed 18 people and injured 13 others on his rampage. This marks the 565th mass shooting in the U.S. in 2023 alone. This shooting is also the deadliest of the year in the history of the state of Maine.
The gunman, 40-year-old Robert Card, opened fire at a bowling alley right at 7 p.m. before heading to a nearby bar and grille minutes later to open fire again. He had worked in the U.S. Army Reserve in 2002 and had experienced mental health issues earlier this year, according to his ex-wife and son. Two days after the massacre, police found Card dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound near a recycling plant in Lisbon, Maine, where he used to work.
During the manhunt, the state of Maine was told to shelter in place and schools were closed in the area. Police had surrounded Card’s last known address and searched within but did not find him. Police also sent seadivers around a lake where his vehicle was last located and abandoned, using sonar technology and underwater rovers to make the search quicker.
Once the manhunt concluded, governor of Maine, Janet Mills, made a statement calling for change. “The people of Maine deserve a serious and robust conversation about gun violence and public safety,” she said. “We must find a path forward to honor the lives lost and prevent this type of devastation from happening again.”
President Joe Biden also discussed the violence. “This was a tragic two days – not just for Lewiston, Maine, but for our entire country,” he said. “Americans should not have to live like this. I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic.”
As the United States attempts to heal from this attack, more conversations are beginning to rise about the continuous gun violence across the country. A leading group against gun violence, March For Our Lives is a student-led organization out of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018. They advocate for the legislature to stop gun violence not just for schools, but all around the country, and this shooting would be another spark for protest.
At RM, there are different opinions on this mass shooting. Some believe that how easy it is for people to access guns to be the reason for the violence while others find mental health issues to be the root of the problem.
Sophomore James Lemery said, “Gun violence is such a prominent issue because guns are so easy to access. The perpetrators of gun violence have access to firearms, it’s so easy to get them for them.”
“I think mental health resources should be available to everyone, and, I’m sure a lot of these people who commit gun violence [need it]. I’m not sure they would be reaching out as much as we hoped they would,” Lemery said.
Sophomore Ewina Chen agrees that obtaining weapons is too easy. “It’s just so easy to gain access to guns in America…we need more laws to prevent [gun violence] from continuing,” she said.
She finds the key to protection isn’t only with guns. “Many people have guns to protect themselves, and that should be available to protect yourself, but for those people their first instinct shouldn’t be to grab a gun and shoot someone,” she said. “I think most of these attacks stem from a mental issue or come from some kind of trauma, so re-enforcing the [mental health] resources at young ages can definitely help decrease the amount of these attacks, and hopefully limit crime overall.”
