WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading to Lewiston, Maine to mourn with a neighborhood the place 18 individuals had been killed within the deadliest mass capturing in state historical past. It’s the kind of journey that’s changing into far too acquainted.
“Too many occasions the president and first woman have traveled to communities fully torn aside by gun violence,” White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated on the eve of the Bidens’ journey on Friday. “We are able to’t settle for it as regular.”
Along with these killed, 13 individuals had been injured within the Oct. 25 shootings at a bar and a bowling alley.
The Bidens pays their respects to the victims, meet with first responders and grieve with households and neighborhood members affected by the shootings, Jean-Pierre stated.
The president has stated he’s decided to combat gun violence within the U.S. He created the first-ever White Home workplace of gun violence prevention, which is charged with discovering options and totally implementing landmark gun security laws enacted final 12 months. He’s additionally pushing for a ban on so-called assault weapons.
The president has visited many communities scarred by mass shootings. He’s been to Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas; Monterey Park, California simply in roughly the previous 12 months.
“There are too many different colleges, too many different on a regular basis locations which have turn into killing fields, battlefields right here in America,” Biden stated throughout a speech on gun violence final 12 months.
As of Friday, there have been at the least 37 mass killings within the U.S. up to now in 2023, leaving at the least 195 individuals lifeless, not together with shooters who died, according to a database maintained by The Related Press and USA At this time in partnership with Northeastern College.
The capturing has many trying to find solutions.
Elizabeth Seal, whose husband Josh Seal was killed within the Maine shootings, stated beforehand she was pissed off to be taught that semiautomatic weapons had been used.
“Typically, I’ve no challenge with using weapons. Some individuals really feel extra comfy having a gun for defense or for some it’s a looking custom,” Seal, who communicated by way of an ASL interpreter as a result of she’s deaf., informed the AP earlier this week.
“However why do we’ve semiautomatic weapons out there that individuals can get? That may trigger such extreme devastation? I don’t see the purpose. There’s no good purpose for that. And so I hope that our lawmakers will do one thing to alter that. I don’t see this drawback in different international locations, proper? That is an American challenge.”
General, stricter gun legal guidelines are desired by a majority of People, no matter what the present gun legal guidelines are of their state. That desire could be tied to some People’ perceptions of what fewer weapons might imply for the nation — fewer mass shootings.
In Maine, shooter Robert Card, a 40-year-old firearms teacher, was discovered lifeless of an obvious self-inflicted gun shot wound after the killings. Authorities stated this week that his household had introduced their considerations about his deteriorating psychological well being to the native sheriff 5 months earlier than the lethal rampage. He had additionally undergone a psychological well being analysis after he started behaving erratically at a coaching facility final summer time.
A number of thousand individuals attended vigils for the victims over the weekend, and residents began returning to work and college on Monday after stay-at-home orders had been lifted.
Biden was notified of the capturing as he hosted a White Home state dinner honoring Australia. He later stepped out of the occasion to talk by phone with Maine Gov. Janet Mills and the state’s representatives in Congress.
Mills, a Democrat, stated she felt Biden’s arrival within the metropolis can be important as a result of it exhibits the nation is grieving with Maine, and that the state has the president’s help.
“By visiting us in our time of want, the president and first woman are making clear that your entire nation stands with Lewiston and with Maine — and for that I’m profoundly grateful,” she stated.
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Related Press writers David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and Colleen Lengthy in Washington contributed to this report.
