On August 20, the Independent Commission established by Gov. Janet Mills to investigate the Lewiston Shooting delivered a 215-page final report on the contributing factors which led to the shooting. In the report, the commission analyzes months of events that led up to Robert Card killing 18 people and wounding 13 others on October 25, 2023 in Lewiston. The Commission avoided making any policy recommendations and simply noted the times when different actors could have behaved differently to reduce the chances of the shooting occurring.
Despite this, some have distorted the report’s contents, claiming that the Commission laid blame on Maine’s yellow flag law when the report did not reach that conclusion. The Lewiston Commission came to no conclusions about the yellow flag law, and stories about the report should be careful to describe its contents accurately.
Because of the high-profile nature of this tragedy, there have been many articles written about the Commission’s final report. Many primarily focused on the fact that Maine does not have a red flag law and instead has a yellow flag law that establishes more requirements for law enforcement to seize an individual’s weapons.
From headlines reading “Lewiston Commission Report: Yellow Flag Process “Burdensome,”” to “Panel probing Lewiston mass shooting says red flag law needs major revamp,” many articles are distorting the findings of the final report. Additionally, there were multiple quotes from the Maine Gun Safety Coalition responding to the report, saying that “current laws did not give the police the tools that they needed to deal with the situation” and “If we had a true extreme arrest protection order [..] then we might have been able to avoid the Lewiston shooting.”
Many who interpreted the report as criticizing the yellow flag law were taking a section from page three of the report out of context. In this section, the report quotes law enforcement officials as calling the law cumbersome, inefficient and unduly restrictive. Those writers should have considered the context of the rest of the paragraph, which is below:
“Several law enforcement officials testified that the yellow flag law is cumbersome, inefficient, and unduly restrictive regarding who can initiate a proceeding to limit a person’s access to firearms. Further, the SCSO (Sagadohoc County Sheriff’s Office) is justified in pointing out that the Army Reserve (AR) did not share all the relevant information it had about Card’s behavior. Nevertheless, under the circumstances existing and known to the SCSO in September of 2023, the yellow flag law authorized the SCSO to start the process of obtaining a court order to remove Card’s firearms.” (emphasis added)
Thus, headlines which state the Commission found Maine’s yellow flag law to be burdensome are either purposefully or accidentally deceptive. The report itself never calls the process burdensome or cumbersome and only describes third-party speakers’ opinions on the process of the law. Additionally, the report notes multiple times that local police had the legal opportunity to follow through with the yellow flag order process but failed to act. The report just as much seems to show that while Robert Card bears immediate responsibility, the easiest way to stop this is to remove human error rather than change the legal system.
While it is impossible to know if this tragedy could’ve been prevented, the report noted three points where the Sagadohoc County Sheriff’s Office could have acted differently to reduce the chances of the shooting occurring. They also noted five instances where Robert Card’s Army Reserve Unit could have worked to reduce the likelihood of this tragedy occurring. The Commission also notes a total of six ways in which Captain Jeremey Reamer, Robert Card’s Commanding Officer, could have acted to reduce the chance of the shooting. Lastly, the Commission notes an additional three ways in which medical personnel at the two hospitals to which Robert Card was committed could have reduced the likelihood of this happening.
While the report does not seek to assign blame to any of these people, it acknowledges the multitude of ways the shooting could have been prevented. It also acknowledges that because Card was treated at mental hospitals in New York, the state’s SAFE Act could have been invoked to stop the tragedy, as it had been used against individuals from out of state before. The SAFE Act is a very far-reaching gun control statute that includes extreme risk protection orders, like a red flag law. New York also has its own red flag law, which could’ve been applied in Card’s scenario but still wasn’t. Because the appropriate medical personnel didn’t initiate the process in New York, the state’s red flag law did not stop the Lewiston shooting.
The commission’s report shows that many factors contributed to the tragedy in Lewiston, but no contributor can be blamed. The report makes no statement on whether this was a failure of Maine’s yellow flag law, primarily because it wasn’t. The attack may not have happened if the yellow flag law had been used as intended, but we cannot know that with certainty. Moving forward, we must look at the facts accurately and, using them, determine the best way to stop this from ever happening again.