Maine’s motto challenged by Lewiston tragedy

Crossing back into Maine on I-95 one azure morning last week, I saw the sign again. I always read it and smile: “Welcome to Maine. The way life should be.”

What does that motto suggest to you? The purity of the air; the absence of distracting billboards; the mountains, forests and beaches; the endless ocean; the good heartedness of the people; vital and vibrant communities; a sense of personal safety?

Events of a week ago forced me to reconsider the accuracy of the cheery epigram. Last Wednesday evening, 40-year-old Robert Card entered two different businesses where local folks were enjoying that “way life should be” lifestyle and began his merciless attack on innocent people. Card shot to death 18 of his neighbors and wounded 13 others, all in a matter of minutes.

The way life should be? No! This sort of violent spasm is not characteristic of Maine. An online report I found this week claims that before 2023 Maine was the second safest state to live in — behind Vermont and ahead of Rhode Island.

Homicides do happen here but with far less frequency than in other states.

Relatedly, at 2.9 homicides per 100,000 Maine’s rate (2019 data) was second lowest — right behind New Hampshire. For comparison, Louisiana’s rate was nearly eight times higher (22.9 per 100,000).

Still, facts on the ground rarely trump people’s emotional responses to events they experience directly. Two days after the Lewiston shootings, a story appeared in the news about long lines at gun shops in the area. The report noted that ammunition was becoming scarce because people were stocking up — and not just for hunting season.

This past Summer, Robert Card was hospitalized for his hallucinatory mental state; his behavior was characterized as erratic, threatening and potentially dangerous to himself and others. The Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office knew this and rightly notified “every law enforcement agency in the state” about the danger Robert Card posed. Maine’s “yellow flag” law — designed to keep firearms out of the hands of people in mental health crises — was no impediment to his acquiring more guns.

This Lewiston tragedy was not the only multi-victim murder spree this year in Maine. According to the Gun Violence Archive [https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/], there have been 35 gun deaths so far this year in the state; including four people murdered in Bowdoin in April; two others killed in Westbrook in June and two more shot to death in Lewiston in July. These and other shootings in the state also resulted in another 38 injuries.

Not many, I suppose compared to Louisiana, but clearly not “the way life should be.”

The Maine State Legislature has considered reforms to gun laws over the years, but the best it has managed is the “yellow flag” law passed in 2019. Resistance to more regulation seems to rest on what is sometimes called a “slippery slope argument,” in which one party asserts that a relatively small first step will lead inevitably to a series of extreme and unacceptable actions down the road. Even the slightest reforms must be rejected.

Thus, you can’t restrict ownership of one type of weapon (e.g., the AR-15 rifle) without infringing on the rights of all gun owners. Doing so will eventually leave gun owners with nothing but flintlock rifles to defend themselves. This is nonsense, of course, but the fallacious logic of the argument stands in the way of prohibiting the most deadly type of weapons.

What is to be done? Well, perhaps we could look to Congressman Jared Golden for inspiration — a native of Lewiston and 2011 graduate of Bates. The murders there have pushed Golden past the tipping point. In a recent letter to constituents, he says: “I have previously opposed calls to ban AR-15s or similar rifles. I am now joining the call to ban their sale and restrict the possession of them.” This is a courageous stance for the three-term Golden; a stand which could cost him his seat in Congress next November.

So, think again: what should “the way life should be” mean when it comes to guns? Is having unfettered access to whatever military-style firearms anyone wants, a central element of “the way life should be”?

Or is accepting that meaningful regulation of some firearms is essential to our collective safety?

Unrestricted access to semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines does not square with the way life should be.