PORTLAND, Maine — A bill introduced Monday in the wake of a mass shooting in Maine would require the military to use the state’s crisis intervention laws to confiscate the weapons of a service member who poses a serious threat to themselves or others, said Sen. Susan Collins, the bill’s sponsor.
The Armed Forces Crisis Intervention Notification Act is intended to address missed opportunities by military and civilian law enforcement to intervene before an Army reservist who had become psychotic opened fire at two locations in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people and wounding 13 others on Oct. 25, 2023.
“We have an opportunity to help service members in crisis. We have an opportunity to protect our neighbors and families. We have an opportunity to save lives,” Collins said in a statement. Maine’s other senator, independent Angus King, is a co-sponsor of the bill.
The law aims to ensure communication between state agencies and military branches after criticism that the military was not as forthcoming as it could have been with state law enforcement officials about the gunman, 40-year-old Robert Card, before the shooting. It requires the military to participate in state crisis responses, including so-called red flag or yellow flag laws aimed at confiscating guns from someone experiencing a psychiatric emergency.
Law enforcement officials were aware of Card’s growing paranoia, and Card had been hospitalized last summer while his reserve unit was training in upstate New York. Health care providers who examined him said he was psychotic and on a hit list, and advised him not to allow access to weapons.
Military officials restricted Card’s access to military weapons, but Card still had access to privately owned weapons at his home in Bowdoin, Maine.
The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office was called to Card’s home to check on him after he threatened to shoot up his unit’s home. However, the officers had no knowledge of what had happened in New York State or the extent of his mental health crisis.
This bill would not affect the military’s existing authority to disarm service members in a wide range of situations, Collins said. Instead, the bill aims to close a communication gap between military and civilian law enforcement that could have prevented the tragedy in Maine.
“We can’t bring back the friends and family we lost last October, but we can take steps to repair the cracks in the system that led to the tragedy,” King added.
The mass shooting was investigated by an independent commission appointed by the governor, along with the Army Reserve and the Army Office of the Inspector General. Maine Governor Janet Mills said the tragedy “was caused by a colossal failure of human judgment by multiple people on multiple occasions.”