WASHINGTON, D.C.–U.S,, state and local law enforcement officials found 40-year-old mass shooter Robert Card dead in a remote area near Lisbon Falls, close to a recycling dump where Card once worked. All the 24/7 media coverage came to a screeching halt when Maine Gov. Janet Mills said that Card was found dead Oct. 27 at 7: 45 PM of a single gunshot wound to the head, ending a furious 48-hour manhunt after Card slaughtered 18 in a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston, Maine Wednesday, Oct. 26, prompting a furious smanhunt by law enforcement to find the mass shooter to neutralize the danger to the community. For 48-hours, Lewison was under threat of another mass shooting with law enforcement unsuccessful in tracking down his whereabouts. As with so many othesr, the event permanently damages the lives of so many victims, including survivors of Card’s military-like massacre.
Law enforcement and victims are left empty though relieved that Card is no longer a threat to the community. But as mass shootings have shown, there are many other future Cards in the works, ticking time-bombs waiting to go ballistic with whatever weapons they possess. What’s most difficult is for law enforcement to figure out in advance of the mayhem how to prevent future ballistic episodes from sweeping through communities around the country. Gun control advocates urge stricter gun control laws keeping guns away from mentally ill or dangerous criminal prone toward mass murder. Law enforcement can only do so much to prevent future violence when current Constitutional rights under the First, Second and 14sth Amendments prevent law enforcement from intercepting future mass shootings before they occur in real time.
Card was hospitalized and evaluated only weeks before his mass shooting, raising questions about the mental health system that values privacy over urgent dangers to the public. When the mental health system evaluates patients, they have a growing obligation to protect the public from acts of violence. Yet Maine’s mental health system failed the public, much like mental health systems all over the country, too concerned about protecting patients’ rights against the public safety. Watching Card in slow motion massacre 18 innocent people, wounding at least 50 other, shows the current failures of the system to do a better job of predicting and controlling violent behavior. Card should not have been released on his own recognizance, given his ballistic episode. Mental health authorities like the American Psychological Association [APA] still protect perpetrators’ rights.
Mental health experts at the APA or American Psychiatric Assn [APA] say that the mentally ill are no more prone toward violence than non-mentally ill mass killers. Whatever the research shows, including ferreting out all variables related to violence, it defies common sense to say that Card’s delusions and hallucinations did not contribute to his mass shootings. Does anyone believe that anyone committing egregious acts of violence don’t have ssome mental illness whether they’ve been diagnosed or not? Mental health experts like to talk about different classes of mental illness, often distinguishing between schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and various types of psychopathic or criminal behavior. But at the end of the day, anyone committing mass killing has some form of mental illness, whether diagnosed or not. Take the recent terrorist attacks in Israel.
Reports of the terrorists wired on stimulants show how drugs, alcohol or other substances factor into acts of horrific violence. Even brainwashed terrorists committing genocide have some kind of temporary insanity, even, as groups like Nazis or the Islamic State, t commit the most sadistic violence on innocent victims. Mental health experts can say all they want that research doesn’t showss that mental health causes violence doesn’t mean that guns should get into the hands of mentally ill. No sane person can argue that mental illness, drugs or alcohol are not contributors factors to gun violence. Taking guns out of perpetrators like Card would be the right thing to do. Mentally ill gun owners shouldn’t have the same rights as responsible citizens. Elected officials must create Second Amemdement limitations-and-exceptions for mentally ill gun owners.
Watching law enforcement find Card dead of a self-inflicted gun shot wound shows precisely why mentally ill people should not be allowed to buy firearms. Elected officials must write exceptions to privacy laws and Second Amendment considerations to prevent the mentally ill from getting their hands on firearms. Card’s suicide doesn’t end the controversy of how to prevent future ballistic episodes from occurring in the future. Law enforcement and the media have the news vacuum once mass shooters are neutralized by police or at their own hands. It doesn’t stop elected officials from taking gun control legislation more seriously, including writing laws to make it more difficult for the mentally ill to own firearms. Car ended his life with a single bullet but it doesn’t stop the controversy of how government can help reduce the incidence of gun violence in the future.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
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