PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Mandatory reporting of violent threats or behavior among military personnel could help prevent mass shootings, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Friday.
A week after the Oct. 25 mass shooting in Lewiston, Collins and U.S. Sen. Angus King sent a letter to Inspector General Lt. Gen. Donna Martin questioning how Army officials handled shooter Robert R. Card II’s mental condition and threats of violence.
“To me, it’s incomprehensible that he threatened to shoot up an Army Reserve Center in Saco and they didn’t report him,” Collins said, after attending an event in Presque Isle. “If they were that worried, it seems to me that would have been sufficient basis to report him.”
Collins’ comments came the day after another member of Maine’s congressional delegation addressed ways to prevent future mass shootings. King on Thursday introduced a gun-control bill, along with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, that would control the sale of gas-powered semi-automatic guns, like that used by Card in Lewiston.
Collins said she is reviewing King’s bill, but declined to offer an opinion on it.
The legislation also aims to limit high-capacity magazines, ban bump stocks that can make guns fire more rapidly, and set up a buyback program in which people could turn in weapons and receive compensation for them.
King has been working on gun-control legislation for several years, Collins said. Collins worked with Heinrich on a bill introduced in June to ban bump stocks. King signed on as a co-sponsor following the Lewiston shooting, she said.
In the meantime, Collins is pursuing legislation that would require the military to report incidents or threats of violence by service members who would harm themselves or others, she said.
The Army prohibited Card from using weapons while on military duty and he was later cited as non-deployable due to a declining mental state, but he still was allowed legally to purchase weapons and ammunition in Maine.
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“The fact is that someone who is a criminal or anyone who is suffering from a mental illness that poses a threat to themselves or others should not have access to any kind of guns,” Collins said.
Under Maine law, police can confiscate firearms temporarily from a person who is believed to be a threat to themselves or others. The person is taken into protective custody while a medical practitioner and a judge decide if the person is indeed a threat.
“Could this horrendous attack have been prevented? I’m still waiting for the investigative findings, but based on what I know so far, it does appear that there would have been cause for the Army to trigger one of those laws which would have resulted in Robert Card losing his access to his weapons,” Collins said.
Collins was in Presque Isle to mark the opening of Aroostook Mental Health Services’ new residential treatment center.