Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

Just checked in with a friend from that town in Maine. His parents are currently sheltering in place, and they know some of the apparent victims. (For what it's worth, he's a liberal gun owner, his dad is a Trumpy conservative gun owner; both hunters.)

The family of Robert Card—who is suspected of killing 18 people in two mass shootings in Maine on Wednesday night—say the Army reservist had previously claimed he was hearing voices at the two locations he allegedly attacked.

In the aftermath of the carnage, Katie Card, who is married to Card’s brother, told The Daily Beast that their family has been messaging her brother-in-law and urging him to surrender to authorities.

“I have known Rob my whole life,” Card said on Thursday. “He is quiet but the most loving, hardworking, and kind person that I know. But in the past year, he had an acute episode of mental health, and it’s been a struggle.”

She said that Robert Card recently began wearing powerful hearing aids to combat hearing loss. Since then, Card said her brother-in-law has been insisting to his family that he can hear people bashing him—including at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grill, where he’s accused of gunning down 18 people on Wednesday night.

“He truly believed he was hearing people say things,” she added. “This all just happened within the last few months.”

Did anyone at least try to take away his guns during this past year or even these few months when it was blatantly obvious he was having severe mental health issues? I fucking hate the gun culture in this country.

i guess it's possible he was creating a stockpile on the sly, like the Vegas shooter did, but considering his previous job i'd hope someone would have maybe thought to do that. i can also imagine people being afraid to confront him. people hate confrontation in normal(er) circumstances.

even the 'good guys' go schizophrenic sometimes

according to a neighbor his whole family are a bunch of gun nuts and their house is like a compound

I hope they're held accountable in court.

so if someone already legally owns guns, then winds up hospitalized for a mental health crisis where they talk repeatedly about shooting places up.... is there no legal mechanism in place to take the guns away? I get that they can be prevented from further purchase.

States have tried to pass laws like that, but NRA-backed politicians always prevent their passage. They seriously don't care, they throw some sociopathic bullshit about how even an abusive, violent asshole deserves to be armed because of their warped interpretation of the 2nd amendment.

Everyone should read this: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/23/battleground-america

Gives you an idea of how the NRA got warped by a bunch of sociopathic extremists and created the hellhole reality we're dealing with now.

I think the argument is that people with severe mental health issues are at elevated risk of being victims of violence (true) so they need huge stockpiles of guns and ammo to protect themselves from those who wish them harm (FAAAAAAAAAAAAALSE)

Maybe his family was stockpiling guns to protect themselves from him.

Can't believe this well-regulated militia failed us

In a community like Lewiston, Von Scott, an Auburn resident, was appalled no one stopped the shooter during Wednesday night's attacks. "Really what shocks me is that nobody shot back at him," he said. "Part of safety in Maine is that everybody carries.” https://t.co/Qn0alcrHgm.

— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) October 26, 2023

Did they get him?

I believe they are still looking for him.

In a state that's 90% forest, god help them

The worry I'd have is that he's going to pop out somewhere else and try another one of these things. I hope everybody takes the local lockdown seriously, but one wonders if he's even in the area anymore.

90% forest and 5% bearded white men with guns — hay in a haystack.

hope he gets stomped by a moose

stomplamoose'd

The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a moose IIRC

Lol sufjan

A well-regulated mooselitia

Golden: I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle he used to carry out this crime. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure. Which is why I now call on the United States congress to ban assault rifles pic.twitter.com/0k60XJQoaB

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 26, 2023

Good luck with that, pro-gun Dem.

they are surrounding his house now. you'd think they would have checked there earlier

Well he had a sign that said no solicitation

"everyone in maine carries" is complete horseshit

Senate Voted to Let Vets With Mental Issues Keep Guns Hours Before Maine Shooting

no paywall via yahoo:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/senate-voted-let-vets-mental-205000099.html

https://www.newsweek.com/robert-card-maine-mass-shooting-social-media-posts-1838068

Not a fan of the Daily Mail, but they just posted a story with the headline Fugitive 'gun fanatic' Robert Card lived in COMPOUND in sleepy Maine town with firearm-crazed family who neighbors avoided, as manhunt continues

The relevant part:

Fugitive Maine shooting suspect Robert Card lived in a 'compound' with his gun-fanatic family, according to a local who claimed neighbors tried to avoid the alleged killer.

Liam Kent, who lives near Card's home in Bowdoin, told The Messenger the community knew the suspect and his relatives as 'gun-toting enthusiasts who lived in 'basically a compound.'

'They would shoot guns all the time, you could hear them every day after school. It was like clockwork,' Kent claimed, adding that he once saw Card 'covered in blood with a gun on his back (and) a giant grin on his face' after going deer hunting.

The suspect received involuntary psychiatric treatment this summer after he reported hearing voices and having thoughts about hurting other soldiers while training at Camp Smith in New York, a military source told CNN.

He was committed to a mental health institution for about two weeks this summer after threatening to shoot up a national guard base.

how long are they going to be actively looking for him? I don't think I've ever heard of one of these guys actually getting away.

what about John Rambo?

Eric Rudolph was a fugitive for, what, 5 years?

Yeah. He was a survivalist though. Not sure if this guy packed enough jerky.

Robert Card, who was wanted in connection with the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official tells The Associated Press. Press conference will be held at 10 p.m. EST

(cut-and-paste job, should've put that in italics)

He died doing what he loved.

Just now I was reading the CNN profiles (? this deserves a better word) of the 18 dead, which is how I learned that a number of them were participating in a deaf cornhole league. I don't know what to do with this information. It breaks my heart.

He should have just taken himself out in the first place without visiting misery on so many others.

A more common scenario, to be fair

He was hearing evil voices from the bowling alley though. Not every case is the same but for an outsider it’s pretty terrifying to see how that kind of paranoia has a hold on someone with severe schizophrenia. I even had another encounter with what was probably a paranoid schizophrenic during the New York Film Festival. He ran up to the ticket window, clearly “looking” for the people there and repeated angry accusations that they were secretly talking about terrible things involving him. When a staff member tried to accost him, he spit a giant loogie on the window and fled in terror. He looked like he was very poor and homeless and not likely to own a gun, but imagine if Card had become like that.

(To be clear, what I meant was, he should never have had access to guns when it was obvious he lost his mind.)

The American version of good news. https://t.co/s8lO7UiBsc pic.twitter.com/kDv6nFeuGb

— David Roberts (@drvolts) October 30, 2023

see, the good guy with a gun isn't a myth.

All it takes to stop a bad guy with a gun is a bad guy with a gun.

There is currently a dustup in Georgia about whether to arm teachers. Republican lawmakers want to offer financial incentive for them to get training and carry. Fucking insane.

nothing says 'public safety' more than having a bunch of unsecured handguns floating around an elementary school

good luck with the lawsuit when an unhinged teacher kills a few students with a state-sponsored handgun.

My elementary school principal got fired for bringing a gun to school and pointing it at a kid in his office

Thinking about all of my high school teachers and how definitely none of them should have had guns.

My elementary school principal got fired for bringing a gun to school and pointing it at a kid in his office

It was the 80s, man