Not Big Daddy’s ‘American carnage,’ is it?
After Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to a Cat 5 hurricane in 24 hours before slamming into Acapulco on Wednesday, CNN’s Derek Van Dama called it “the new normal…. Climate change? The fingerprints written all over it.”
Nope, climate change deniers will insist.
After a suspected firearms instructor and Army reservist armed with an AR-style rifle murders 16 in Lewiston, Maine, injures dozens, and throws multiple communities into shelter-in-place lockdown, gunophiles will insist the problem isn’t easy access to guns either.
The suspected shooter remains at large as I type this. Hannaford Supermarkets has closed all its stores in Maine until at least 10 a.m. L.L. Bean has closed its facilities across Maine as well.
- It has been more than 12 hours since deadly overnight shootings killed at least 16 people, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and left dozens injured in Lewiston, Maine. The massive manhunt continues Thursday morning for Robert Card, 40, a person of interest linked to the overnight attacks at a restaurant and a bowling alley, with authorities saying he is armed and dangerous. Residents in Lewiston and the nearby towns of Lisbon and Bowdoin are under a shelter-in-place advisory.
Here’s what to know about the shootings and the manhunt so far:
- Lewiston police reported that shots were fired at around 7 p.m. Wednesday at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley formerly known as Sparetime Recreation, in the city of about 38,000. Authorities said on social media Wednesday night that there was an active shooter incident unfolding at the bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille, a restaurant about four miles away. Many parents and children at Just-In-Time were there as part of a children’s bowling league, according to the Associated Press.
- At least 16 people were killed in the attacks, and the death toll is expected to rise, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss initial information gathered by first responders. The victims have not been publicly identified as of Thursday morning.
- A second law enforcement official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a review of Card’s background showed that he is an Army reservist who has struggled with mental health problems this year. Card, of Bowdoin, has been described by authorities as a firearms instructor who was assigned to a training facility in Saco, Maine.
- The death toll in Lewiston is already the largest mass shooting in the United States this year. It is also the 34th mass killing in the country this year.
- Many of the schools in the state will not open on Thursday in response to the ongoing manhunt.
- A police news conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Eastern at Lewiston City Hall.
The “34th mass killing” this year is the 565th mass shooting in the United States, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as “a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident. Mass Murder by gun is a subset of the Mass Shooting count.”
That’s not the kind of broad “American carnage” Donald Trump meant in his inaugural speech, but it’s the “new normal.” Four Americans in ten are just fine with that.
Nope. Easy access to guns is not the problem, gun violence deniers will say. The only fingerprints belong to the shooter. It’s not even a problem when it’s “bad” people with easy access.
Nope. Must be mental illness. Uh-merica gotta hurry up and do nothing about that too.
"I and millions of people in America struggle with mental illness—and we'd never consider violence toward anyone. We'd certainly never walk into a mall or a church or a school and gun down strangers."#Maine
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) October 26, 2023
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