Lewiston Heroes and Victims Highlight Glaring Need to Hold Lawmakers and Law Enforcers Accountable
“Look for the helpers” is what Mr. Rogers always said to do in a crisis, and Rick LaChapelle was one helper among many in Maine last week in connection with the horrific shooting.
The Lewiston tragedy spotlights a City Councilor among others for being a hero because he prevented the killer from getting a silencer by following the law. Previous accusations that LaChapelle violated right-to-know laws by meeting locals in a bar to kvetch and talk politics now seem petty.
But with our eyes wide open looking for helpers we can’t help but also see the glaring failure of the law and those sworn to uphold it staring us in the face.
LaChapelle is the owner of Coastal Defense, a Maine gun shop where Robert Card tried to purchase lethal accessories for the assault weapon he later used to mow down 31 innocent people, killing 18 and wounding 13. A legally required form asks purchasers of the silencers if they are “mentally defective” and the Lewiston killer checked “yes.”
It’s almost like he was begging to be stopped, but instead a Reserve unit captain “thought it best to let Card have some time to himself for a bit” and here we are. Struggling to pick up pieces that don’t fit together.
Imagine the scale of the carnage if the Maine shooter had a silencer in addition to hallucinations about being persecuted, high capacity magazines and training. Now imagine if other people with authority tracked him down instead of knocking on his door a few times and then putting out a missing person bulletin only to rescind it 3 days later and call it a day.
The people with authority who failed to warn the public and take appropriate action to protect Lewiston from a known terrorist threat are most likely immune from responsibility. Qualified immunity laws need to be changed.
The manufacturers of the weapons, ammunition and accessories of choice for domestic terrorists are immune from responsibility. These laws and any that make the indicators in the Lewiston instance not enough to confiscate his assault rifles and/or put him in an institution need to be changed.
We can celebrate the bravery of heroes while holding accountable those who allowed a psychotic trained marksman with a stockpile of deadly weapons expressing the intent to commit a shooting at a local military base to be on the loose without warning.
Family members pleaded with the local sheriff to do something. Card was acting so erratic his fellow reservists at a West Point training camp dragged his sorry *ss to a psychiatric hospital escorted by the New York State Police - but he has a right to hunt people?
How absolutely ridiculous it is that bureaucratic obstacles mistakenly called “due process” can’t separate deranged assassins from their lethal guns. The toothless yellow flag law requires an arrest essentially, a medical examination and a hearing in front of a judge to be used, a legislative genuflect to our absurd gun culture.
Men who commit mass shootings in America are domestic terrorists. Where was the MIAC? The Maine Information Analysis Center, whose mission is to share intelligence among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to secure the Maine citizens from the threat of terrorism, must account for why on earth a profile of this guy and his photo was not posted in every police station and public safety building with a red alert.
What are we doing?