If Reports About Robert Card’s Mental Health are Accurate, Maine Will Have a Lot of Questions to Answer

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Robert Card
Courtesy Maine State Police

As of this writing, Robert Card, the prime suspect in the Lewiston, Maine mass shooting, has not yet been arrested. Last night, Maine State Police announced that Card “recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard base in Saco, ME. Card was also reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks during the summer of 2023 and subsequently released.”

Assuming all of this is true, the Maine mental health and criminal justice systems will have some explaining to do. This is beginning to appear to be another systemic failure on the part of government along the lines of the those that led to the Sutherland Springs shooting.

Much will depend on when Card acquired his gun and whether his commitment was reported to the FBI. The DOJ paid families and survivors of the Sutherland Springs shooting $144 million for its failures in that case.

A mental health commitment should require the government entity handling it to confirm the individual is not armed, and if it is proven they dropped the ball on that, they should have full liability to the victims and their families.

As for background checks, the government should finally make the NICS system available as an app that anyone can access on their phones. It is ridiculous this still hasn’t been done in 2023.

I envision it working like this . . .

1. The individual buying a gun from you gives you a unique code.

2. You type it in and get an “all clear” and proceed with the sale.

3. This would be an optional system. However, using it before transferring a gun becomes an affirmative defense to any charges of knowingly selling a gun to a prohibited person.

Most Americans selling guns in private transactions don’t want to sell to nutjobs or criminals. But they also don’t want to put up with what can be abusive state-level background checks.

California charges nearly $40 for such transfers and requires the buyer and seller to go to a gun store to do it (and the buyer must return again ten days later to pick up the firearm). Also, using this optional system should also allow the user to bypass state-level background check laws like California’s.

Keep your eye on the reports surrounding Card’s threats, his commitment, and his firearms once Card is finally apprehended.

 

Konstadinos Moros is an Associate Attorney with Michel & Associates, a law firm in Long Beach that regularly represents the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) in its litigation efforts to restore the Second Amendment in California. You can find him on his Twitter handle @MorosKostas. To donate to CRPA or become a member, visit https://crpa.org/.

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105 COMMENTS

  1. Hears voices, threatens violence, is released from a mental institution after two weeks with no follow-up….it’s like someone wanted a bad thing to happen.

    • Institution probably gave him a three-month supply of meds to cure him.
      Ran out a week ago but didn’t renew because he was sane again.

      • That is the sort of retarded that would be more likely in NY…………..with that said is possible as well as the “I feel better and these side effects suck” effect could have been at play.

      • Some of the drugs that they give for this condition actually make things worse. Most of the mass shooters were on these for treatment.

      • Yup pseudo “science” like phrenology. There’s “sane” and there’s “crazy” and I don’t need a degree to determine who is what.

    • Just because you’re crazy doesn’t mean you’re stupid. Probably worked out what to say to get out sooner.

  2. So, some guy in Arizona made threats against a university and he got scooped up and sits in jail. Maine guy ends up in a psych ward for two weeks, makes threats against the national guard and he gets cut loose. I’m confused.

    • Its part of the plan. Gun Free Zones, psychotropic drugs, ignoring people with health problems.
      Oh and also don’t report the behiavor to NICS.
      Its not a failure of government. Its on purpose.

      • Sadly what you say is supported by more and more examples. Create chaos to justify suspension of civil liberties.

    • No, you are NOT the one who is confused. Inly goobermunt dweebs can be that confused and not get locked up.

    • There’s an election coming up. The plans are still working, just like always. It helps to have the press on your 6.

  3. Why is it the voices are always negative, paranoid, malicious?
    Does anyone hear voices demanding they bake cookies or plant gardens?

        • Mine are nicer than yours since they are telling me I need to get up off my lazy ass and go rake the leaves. Oh, no sorry that was just my wife trying to motivate me to get the yard done!

        • Central FL that is not an issue, more motorcycle weather in the Winter than “Winter” type days…

        • mine are telling me I shouldn’t have taken the car out for a run when I suspected there was something wrong with it…now there’s a lot more wrong with it!

      • @MADDMAX: Lucky you!

        Being a cafe racer isn’t easy. No room for a passenger.
        All my invisible friends insist on having their own bikes. I’m constantly wrenching on THEM, and don’t have any time left to go ride.
        Life’s Tough for the mentally flatulent guys who have already lost what hair they used to have…

    • “Negative” reoccurring voices are big exception, not the norm. Mental health professionals estimate between 30 and 40% of the American population “hear voices” at some point in their life. It’s almost always short-lived and very benign. The most common thing they hear is their name being called.
      Hearing voices that tell you to do specific things is rare and hearing voices that tell you to behave in a way radically different than your normal behavior is extremely rare and should be a massive warning to any healthcare provider.

        • Gabapentin is about the only drug that will work for some people, but a very dangerous one. It needs to be closely monitored by your Healthcare professional.

        • Man that gabapentin can be nasty stuff. Cat and dog tranquilizer, off label. I took it for awhile because of nerve damage from shingles, and even a threshold dose made me feel foggy much of the time. Finally weaned myself off of it, as the weird nerve sensations somewhat diminished. A friend of mine was taking 3x my dose, with no side effects.

        • “…mangled my hand in a table saw and developed complex regional dystrophy…”
          -exact- same thing happened to me (I really feel for you), and the doctors insisted on that krap-ass drug too.
          When I realized that I couldn’t safely drive a car I told them where to stuff that horrid junk.
          The doctors experimented on me with a whole phalanx of ‘drug-of-the-day’ (one just as bad as the next)and the only thing that brought the CRPS under control was an implant that mimics a TENS unit.
          23 years this Christmas, intimately involved with that chronic pain awfulness that -could have- been sent into remission if adequate immediate care had been provided, instead of ‘wait & see’ medical(?)slapdashery.
          Yeah, just a little bit bitter over the phreakin’ avoidable nightmare.

        • Been taking Gabapantin for 20+ years, 800mg daily. No voices, no squirrelly actions. V.A. Supplied for PTSD. Different meds for different people, I guess.

        • CRPS is super creepy. My Physio said “ you are growing black hair on your hand, call you doctor now!
          She insisted I call him on her phone. Went to see the doc and I asked him “what is this sweaty hairy hand thing?”. He bluntly answered something like “ take this seriously it you will go off a bridge like my other patient”. Got my full attention. After the gabapentin suicidal ideation I was put on sone other nerve pill plus a “ bone talker” machine. The machine yells at your bones to grow and I closed gaps the surgeon said were impossible to close. He flat out said “ that’s not your x ray”. If you know anyone facing finger amputation or just want to avoid bone grafts from your hip, try these machines.

      • “Hearing voices that tell you to do specific things is rare and hearing voices that tell you to behave in a way radically different than your normal behavior is extremely rare and should be a massive warning to any healthcare provider.”

        JWT, a serious question – What do you do with someone who ‘feels better’ and stops taking their needed psychotropic meds? Should they be required to get an implant that meters it into their bloodstream automatically as a requirement for being released into society?

        • Court ordered psychiatric treatment is not uncommon and completely appropriate. Their healthcare provider should be getting regular Labs as well as direct observation of the patient. There is no such thing as a standard practice of just quitting psychiatric medications willy-nilly. They are tapered on, carefully observed, and tapered off. At least they should be in any functioning Healthcare system.

    • “Does anyone hear voices demanding they bake cookies or plant gardens?”

      I’m laughing right now (and thanks for that! 🙂 ), but that’s a damn good question. I suspect that yes, that happens, and it may explain some highly-driven people – slash – workaholics, folks that don’t know when to quit…

    • When I was dating my wife, many years ago, she tells me she was sitting in her bedroom one day and heard this voice out of nowhere, that said “Help her.”

      My wife looked out of her window and there was this rather lost-looking middle aged woman on the sidewalk outside her apartment. She decided to go out to talk to the woman.

      Turns out she was a moderately mentally-disabled woman who was about to lose her apartment; somewhere along the line she’d pretty much lost her support network. My wife befriended her and helped get her into a new apartment she could afford.

      Sometimes the voices are angels, not demons.

  4. Are you questioning the competence of state agents?? How dare you! We all know government is the solution to all problems. Get with the program, you right-wing MAGA fanatic!!

  5. Mr. Moros,

    While the concept of being able to yes/no a firearms transaction using a mobile phone would be nice, I’ll object on two, neigh – three reasons.

    1. A free man is just that. If you’re not locked up, you’re free to assemble, go about commerce, etc., as you please.

    2. A government-approved/snooping phone app really smells of intrusion. Especially if it’s at up by any private context or that’s got an office in Ft. Meade (thanks, Snowden). It really opens up to all kinds of potential abuse, which leads me to …

    3. A nice, convenient registry in the palm of your hand, eh?

    • Yeah, no, I thought the same thing (except the neigh/nay thing). I would object to having to report to the gov’t. And this coming from a 2A lawyer?

    • It would be great to be able to generally yes/no people. If they can’t be trusted with a gun, there’s a lot more I don’t trust about them. Got a potential renter or AirBnB guest — better pass a background first. Make sure the neighbor doesn’t diddle kids before letting your spawn go over and play. Check out a perspective partner before going on a date or hooking up. Hiring somebody to do work in your home, make sure they don’t have a tendency to walk off with other people’s stuff.

    • And there’s always the slide into mandatory, and goobermint’s insistence to apply punishment for those scofflaws that wouldn’t submit even if -they- were paid…
      Involving alphabet agencies into your life ‘for the good of…’ NEVER evolves into something a sane person would invite.

  6. Government may have seriously messed up at this point, further investigation will determine. But part of the problem are those that hate the traditional family of one man and one woman. Because originally it was a traditional family. That recognized a sick relative and could have them committed for treatment.

    Unfortunately, outsiders didn’t like the family being able to make the decisions. on the care of their own family members.

    So they had the government to take away the family authority to care for a sick child/relative.

    • “Unfortunately, outsiders didn’t like the family being able to make the decisions. on the care of their own family members.”

      Unless it’s about abortion and the family decision is to have it done, in which case it’s a thumbs up all around. That’s the main argument for Issue 1 here in OH. If the “pregnant person” thinks the family would object, then it can be done without any family input or even notification, even if the “pregnant person” is underage. Leftist ideology is nonsensical claptrap, and is all around dangerous.

    • I buy from Freedommunitions.com and their prices have consistently gone down. That’s all I care about.

  7. Last night… 22 dead over 60 injuries..The worst shooting ever…

    Today 18 dead only 13 injuries…

    Worry about the lying from this media!!… What other lies are they feed us!!

  8. Author’s plan for UBC is absurd. I have nothing more to say on that.

    Whoever signed off on releasing this guy needs to face the same charges as the shooter.

    Can someone PLEASE get TTAG to take down the “Mike’s” 1st “lady” poll? If I continue to feel sick every time I open a TTAG link, I’m going to stop opening them.

    • Oh, my voices tell me to do all kinds of work around the house. I tell them to shut up and I go hunting instead!

  9. The crazy will always be with us. Murderers will always be with us. Restricting the rights of the law-abiding to chase Utopia will always be a bad idea, because Utopia will always be out of reach, “but if we take away just one more of your rights, then…!”

  10. Local: “we had no idea”
    FBI: “was on our radar”
    Press: “white supremacy”
    Politicians: “gun control”
    DA: “prosecute the friends, family, gun manufacturers “
    The Absolutist: “Shall Not Be Infringed”

    Tomorrow: SSDD

  11. CNN this morning was all up in arms over Maine’s lack of an AR ban or red flag law, but the persons being interviewed inevitably left out important facts about current federal laws. Under federal law, an involuntary mental health commitment results in a ban on the possession of firearms, and every state has a law concerning the detention and transport of individuals to mental health facilities for “evaluation and treatment.” If the person is determined to be a danger to himself or others, there is a judicial hearing to determine whether to detain that person at the facility for treatment, and if involuntarily detained, the ban kicks in. Maine has such a law, but the “commentator” opined that this system (which respects due process) is more “cumbersome” than a red flag law. This is utter nonsense. They are roughly equivalent, and both require a judicial proceeding as well as permit (or require) police involvement.Consequently, we must assume that the psychiatrist who treated this individual made a medical determination that this person was not a danger to himself or others, and he was released. How this would or could result in liability of the State or is indicative that the psychiatrist acted below the standard of care, as the OP opines, is at this time impossible to determine. In this context, it must be understood that psychiatrists treat their patient-physician privilege as more iron clad than the attorney client privilege, even to the point of refusing to acknowledge whether a person was or was not a patient.
    That said, I have to assume that if this individual went in on a mental health hold, he most likely voluntarily admitted himself, and thus no gun ban. Further, although Maine does not have a state level background check (oh horrors!), it does require a BGC for a purchase from an FFL under federal law. (Why you should need both no one addresses.)

  12. I’ve seen a creible report that this perp has quite the hustory of prior felony cinvictions, incluing sexual abuse of a minor child, has dine hard time, and other things my brain did not see fit to retain (good brain, thnk you)
    In other words he has been a “prohibited person” for quite a few years. BATF have some questions to answer concerning HOW he got his mitts on that firearm, and further, why he was not looking out between grey iron bars and wearing an orange Onesie. The “system” put in place that tortures the rest of us on the promise that no nutjobs can get their mitts in guns has failed, miserably, at just about everything BUT keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. Now a couple dozen innocents are dead.

    I have only ONE QUESTION about this whole incident:

    WHY was no one in the selected venues of death ARMED and able to shoot back at this perv?

    • Because the prevailing mindset in the world is: “it can’t/won’t happen here” until it does.

    • “WHY was no one in the selected venues of death ARMED and able to shoot back at this perv?”

      Most likely, someone there may have had a pistol, but chose wisely not to present themselves as a target to THE GUY WITH A FREAKING RIFLE…

      • A person can’t see a full 360 at once. If the barrel isn’t pointed directly at you, you have plenty of time to take the shot. You aren’t the police. There’s no reason to attract attention by demanding they stop or drop the gun — just put a lead pill in their brain or chest, even if you’re behind them. There’s no fighting fair or rules of engagement. If you are in the line of fire, it’s better to take you chances with a handgun than be an obedient victim. A rifle doesn’t always win, as shown by the Fargo shooting in July.

      • I have to agree, unless that rifle is pointed at me, I’m going to keep it holstered and try to get clear of the problem. Living in a blue state, I’d probably be prosecuted for firing a gun in public, homicide, fratricide, patricide, every other “cide” despite no kinship. I’d probably also be charged with assault with a deadly weapon with one count for every person in the place including the perp. And all of that posthumously because the Gestapo would shoot me just because I am armed and had the audacity to actually get a permit. Meanwhile, the media would report that I was a terrorist taken out by our wonderful servants of the people whom they think should be defunded.

    • Maine is a safe place. Nobody thought it could happen there. Why bother carrying a gun? I saw this in WV. Mostly white, small communities. Everybody felt safe. But crime and violence still happen. It’s just another white guy killing you instead of a diverse bad guy.

    • Tionico, “Credible report?” Name your “source”? That sounds like something that dacian, the DUNDERHEAD or MINORS49er would say.

  13. “If Reports About Robert Card’s Mental Health are Accurate, Maine Will Have a Lot of Questions to Answer”

    Not likely. It is the presence of guns that make a person “snap” and go on a shooting spree. If we take guns from law abiding people, should they “snap”, there can be no mass killings through the use of firearms. Because there are crazy people walking around free, we must protect the public from crazy people by eliminating the tool of rage they use to fulfill the demands of their broken minds. And…crazy people always seem to be obsessed with gun advertisements and guns.

      • “It’s the gun’s miasma of evil that compels the owner into doing mass murder.”

        Yes, there is no sympathy for the gun. I lose sleep at night knowing guns are walking the streets at night, invading homes and businesses, taking over feeble minds.

    • Yep. Vaporize guns, and the only snapping left would be fingers at the jazz club, and sticks at the campfire. Rice Krispies. Ordering another bottle at a French restaurant. Wholesome stuff. Pesky constitutionalists ruining it for everybody…

  14. And if the gangster criminal republicans had not prevented Obama from passing a European/Asian style health care plan this deraigned fellow would have had a way better chance to get the help he needed.

    Republicans already know this but to them it’s really cheaper to ban guns than fund a National Health Care plan, it’s just that they never admit this.

    • Be grateful to those gangster republicans, dacian. If they had passed a real health care system nationwide you would have gone into an institution. Likely for the rest of your life.

    • Be silent you dirty, filthy Neo-Marxist rat. Everyone knows you leftists want “Big Gov” State control. Why do you hate black people so much? Can’t say the word “GANGS” can you. It is the left who destroyed the cities with homeless, drug addicted, mental patients through legalizing drugs, de-funding police, reducing mental wards. All the while the drumbeat of “America bad”. The Frankfurt school and Saul Alinsky did the libs proud.

    • Are your feet sore from all the dancing in the blood of victims over the past few weeks?

      Which event gave the most satisfaction?

    • Fun Fact:

      The Euros are mostly broke or rapidly going that way because of this kind of medical system.

      We actually have a similar system in some regards, it’s called “Medicare” and it’s more than $30 trillion in the red. Which is a fancy way of saying that if you gave Medicare $30T+ it would still be broke.

    • Dacian the Communist troll provides much needed humor on these pages.

      One can only laugh at his or her or it’s ideas about guns and government other areas in which he, she, or it comments. A Communist is always easy to spot once they begin talking.

    • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. Pure Unadulterated BULL SHIT! According to FEDERAL and STATE law, you cannot force a person into treatment without a COURT ORDER.

      Not to mention socialized medicine is UNCONSTITUTIOINAL!

      Clearly you have no clue what you talk about.

      Have you ever figured out the firsing sequence of a cartridge?

  15. Back then I was talking to a doctor based in California. She explained that doctors generally supported slowly lowering the age admission to Medicaid so as to damp out the financial shocks and take advantage of the existing and functioning bureaucracy.
    She reported extreme lobbying from all the vastly profitable hospitals including the “non profit” hospitals (absurd salaries paid).

    • I assume you told her to keep her socialist garbage in California? Along with all the fruits and nuts?

      • When I had that conversation with her I scoffed at her arguments. But she had a point that the existing Medicaid system was running ok and simply slowly letting people in at earlier age avoided a huge burden of creating a new bureaucracy. I have to admit after I read the Steven Brill articles on the “medical industrial complex “ I was sold. Per Brill, they pull far more out of the USA economy than defence. They are thieves. I won’t bring up the death vaxx here.

        • Sorry, I’ll never buy into socialism in any form. Eventually it grows to encompass all phases of government. Socialized medicine will fail, just as it has in Canada. Please remember that Social Security is paid for as we work. It is not socialist but the government can’t even manage that properly when it’s pre-paid. How do you think they will do with something that uses other peoples’ money? Eventually, they’ll spend money earmarked for Medicaid for something else and the new MRI machines, x-ray machines, OR updates, etc. will have to wait. It’ll get easier each time they do it. The quality of healthcare, as bad as it is today, will get worse. It is inevitable whenever the government holds the purse strings. So, no thanks, keep your socialist garbage.

        • How do people feel about Medicaid? Would most prefer to collapse it and not collect the taxes? It is clearly a socialist program. It lets middle class people retire without paying $1K a month insurance and poor people get health care. There are hospital chains funded purely by Medicaid that are profitable despite billing at a tiny fraction compared to regular hospitals. Personally I am a free market champion but it is clear that health care providers are racketeers. The $14 Q-tip and $25 Tylenol pill as example. The articles by Stephen Brill were so beautifully argued and substantiated. By maybe bad luck he had a heart attack after his first article was published, he then used his hospital experience to amplify for a second article. The dollar figures to his insurance were staggering.

  16. Doesn’t becoming a prohibited person require involuntary commitment?

    IIRC, Federal Law requires the person to either be sent to the commitment with appropriate sign offs of a court or other body with the legal authority or to be found to be mentally incompetent by a same/similar authority and placed under the care of someone else.

    If he voluntarily went to treatment he can voluntarily leave and I don’t think that makes him a prohibited person unless the facility tries to put him on an involuntary hold and succeeds in doing so or manages to get him adjudicated as mentally defective.

    This was the problem with James Holmes. He was clearly crazy but no one wanted to go through the process to get him declared as such because it’s hard to do, often fails and it would have made them a target of someone they already thought was unstable.

    • Yes, your assessment of voluntary vs. involuntary is how it was explained by a 2A attorney in a class I attended a few years ago. At least according to federal law. He said that if you are told you have a problem, you should get a lawyer and attempt to go in voluntarily, before any adjudication process has happened. Involuntary commitment will result in the end of your right to possess a firearm (although you may later petition a judge to restore your rights). However, voluntary does not necessarily guarantee that you have preserved your rights, because if you really are in bad shape and you are uncooperative, you can still be adjudicated as being a mental defective.

  17. nobody up there expected this or saw it coming…they learned a hard and painful lesson…this was a rare event…but it can happen anywhere….

  18. anti-gun is having a collective ‘sexual PR orgasm’ because this shooting happened. One democrat legislator made a big deal out of saying that he was opposed to a ban on the falsely and deceptively termed ‘weapon of war’ but now because of this shooting he has ‘changed his mind’ and now supports a ban – in reality though he is on record as saying previously that he supports banning all firearms and is supported financially in campaign contributions from anti-gun sources.

    In the mean while, not a word about the ~1,600 people across the nation that on the same day as this shooting were attacked by a criminal with a knife and ~230 of the victims were killed on scene and another ~120 died at the hospital (~10 of them in Maine), from being stabbed to death by a criminal with a knife. While the media and anti-gun has their collective gleeful dancing-in-the-blood-of-innocents sexual like PR orgasm for pushing their agenda of tyranny over the law abiding who did nothing wrong, but not a word publicly in the media or from a politician or from any anti-gun organization so interested in supposedly saving lives or from that fake unconstitutional anti-gun private interest jerk off fest in that white house ‘office of violence prevention’, not a word about the ‘collective’ mass killing of ~350 innocent victims with a knife, not a word about ‘assault knives’.

    and also …. In the mean while, not a word about the ~3,800 people across the nation that on the same day as this shooting were attacked by a criminal with a blunt object or hands/feet and ~110 of the victims were killed on scene and another ~260 died at the hospital (~50 of them in Maine), from being beaten to death by a criminal with a blunt object or using hands/feet. While the media and anti-gun has their collective gleeful dancing-in-the-blood-of-innocents sexual like PR orgasm for pushing their agenda of tyranny over the law abiding who did nothing wrong, but not a word publicly in the media or from a politician or from any anti-gun organization so interested in supposedly saving lives or from that fake unconstitutional anti-gun private interest jerk off fest in that white house ‘office of violence prevention’, not a word about the ‘collective’ mass killing of ~370 innocent victims with a blunt object or with hands/feet, not a word about ‘assault blunt object’ or ‘assault hands and feet’.

  19. Real dumb idea to put a Federal App on ones mobile phone, that has the potential to track your movements, scrape your phone of all data and call records, and see what apps you have that use encoded messaging.

    I dont want NICS system or anything like it on my devices.

  20. There’s something about this that is just too perfect for the anti-gun industry. White guy with an AR, murder spree, can’t be found, wack-ball? He’s yet another perfect story needed for the Marxists to confiscate weapons as the Marxists flaunt their power, openly commit their crimes against citizens like murdering a 75 year old 300 pound cripple for being stupid, raiding and arresting people who pray at abortion clinics then rewarding BLM/antifa rioters, etc. It all might be true but I’m extremely skeptical.

  21. Robert Card, the shooting suspect in Wednesday’s attacks that left 18 dead in Lewiston, Maine, was found dead of a reported self-inflicted gunshot Friday night.

    Too bad he didn’t just do that first…

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