On Oct. 25, 2023, there was a mass shooting in Maine. According to apnews.com, “Authorities say a U.S. Army reservist fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night.” CBS News adds that 13 people were injured. The shooting in Maine’s second largest city is the 36th mass killing in the United States this year.

     A massive search for 40-year-old Robert Card of Bowdoin was launched, until he was found dead on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. The New York Times states that officials said that he appeared to have shot himself, and that they believe he acted alone in carrying out the attack.

     AP News says the police found Card’s body at a recycling facility where he worked. In an interview, commissioner Micheal Sauschuch said teams had sourced the Maine Recycling Corp. property Thursday night. He then said another state police team returned Friday and found the body alongside several guns in a trailer that hadn’t been searched. 

     The New York Times quotes, “The man who killed 18 people and wounded 13 more in Lewiston, Maine, the deadliest mass shooting in America this year, had paranoid beliefs that people were talking about him, and he may have been hearing voices.”

     The source continues to state, “Maine lawmakers have resisted efforts to tighten gun laws in part because of it’s large hunting community, but the authorities can restrict gun ownership for people who are suffering mental challenges and are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.”

     History teacher Mr. Charles Selfe addressed the idea of changing gun control laws in Maine. He says, “Could it? Yes. Would it ever happen in Maine? No. They’re extremely individualistic. They’re very much ‘leave us alone, we do our own thing.’ They’re very libertarian.”

     He continues, “My opinion versus what they would actually do in Maine. I think that if somebody was diagnosed with a mental illness, then there should be extra steps at least to get a firearm – it should be more difficult to get one.”

     Beyond that, Selfe doesn’t believe that there is “any need for a civilian to own a weapon that has been made specifically to kill people.”

     One anonymous senior comments, “the freedom to own a gun is paramount in a truly free society; if the people of America didn’t have guns, then there would be little to nothing to stop some government officials from seizing power.”

     He continues, “to put it simply, people have too much faith in the government.”