Active Shooting in Lewiston, Maine (Location of Bates)

That’s my town. My kids probably went to the same schools.

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As explained elsewhere, it is unfortunate whenever anyone takes their life.

It is the best possible outcome for public safety currently.

We should be sad about the 18 killed and the 13 injured and their families, not the killer’s fate.

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I think we should discourage mass shooting assisted suicides.

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The coach of the Sacramento Kings basketball team was overwhelmed by the shootings. His team won, and reporters wanted to hear him talk about the game. He couldn’t, though. The details he was given weren’t quite correct, but the sentiment would be the same even if he had been told that it was a bowling alley & a bar. It’s pretty powerful to see a strong man use his platform in this way: Kings Coach Mike Brown Addresses Maine Mass Shootings.

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A tangent: Two of the best at that are Steve Kerr and his mentor Gregg Popovich. Kerr was born in Beirut, where his father was an academic who eventually was killed by members of the Islamic Jihad when Steve was 18. Popovich played for the Air Force Academy and served five years. He considered a career in the CIA. I always have been a fan who use their platforms for good, rather than just shutting up and dribbling.

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Yup. A friend works closely with Steve Kerr at Brady United Against Gun Violence and he is heavily involved . She says he is extremely committed to this effort, contributes lots of time…not just around for photo ops/publicity…

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These are not mutually exclusive. While I wouldn’t shed a tear to hear he committed suicide, there can be valuable things to be learned from mass killers with regard to mental illness, treatment options, effects of military service on suicidal and homicidal ideation, prevention, etc. D1 is spending her professional life studying/treating this and trying to make headway into improving outcomes.

Besides, who gets to determine what we “should” be sad about, anyway. We can all process this in our own way, no one right way to look at it.

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Being the mother of a severely ill son who experiences horrifying psychotic episodes, my question is why this guy was hospitalized for only two weeks in the summer. I want more details on this. Was it an involuntary commitment? And it sounds like it might have been in New York, not Maine? I don’t know how things work there.

It makes me sad if he didn’t receive the treatment he needed. If you had seen my son a year ago, you would have thought there was literally no hope for his sanity, but a wonderful hospital helped him so much that he has been stable for nine straight months, and happy. We have to do a better job of helping people, for their sakes and the lives of others.

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This.

I sure hope this saga is resolved soon.

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In truth, nobody needs guns. People in more civilized countries get along fine without them.

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This article provides some details with regards to his mental health evaluation

A U.S. Defense Department official confirmed to ABC News that Card was “behaving erratically” while deployed over the summer with his Army Reserve Unit to Camp Smith Training Center in upstate New York to support summer training for West Point cadets.

Leaders of the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment informed garrison staff at the training site about his behavior on July 17, the defense official said.

“Out of concern for his safety, the unit requested that law enforcement be contacted,” the official said.

New York State Police officers responded and transported Card to Keller Army Community Hospital at the U.S. Military Academy for medical evaluation, the official said.

Card allegedly threatened other soldiers with violence and was “command directed” to go to the hospital for the evaluation, according to a source briefed and with direct knowledge of the incident.

According to his SIL

“I have known Rob my whole life,” Card said on Thursday. “He is quiet but the most loving, hardworking, and kind person that I know. But in the past year, he had an acute episode of mental health, and it’s been a struggle.”

She explained that her brother-in-law had begun wearing hearing aids and was convinced he could hear people talking about him at the two locations of the shooting.

“He truly believed he was hearing people say things,” she said. “This all just happened within the last few months.

Katie Card said her brother-in-law would “get mad” when they told him the voices were just in his head. His mental health issues resulted in a weeks-long stay at a facility over the summer, she said.

“Things have kind of gone downhill recently,” Card told the Beast.

“We tried to listen to him and tell him that nobody was talking about him,” she added. ”

Someone mentioned on one of the news programs I was watching today, that the military isn’t required to notify local police when a military member/soldier is hospitalized for mental health treatment that could activate gun laws? Does anyone know if that’s true?

I did a quick google search but couldn’t find anything on point.

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Local media has ongoing coverage:

This article explains it.

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I hope that decision is revisited.

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Seems the suspect is surrounded at his home? Per CNN, reporters can hear police saying come out with your hands up.

I sure hope so.

Please let him be caught!

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Not necessarily. That seems to be standard procedure to announce to come up with your hands up, if they think there’s any chance at all he’s in there. Hope they get him soon.

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