18 people were killed and 13 were injured after shootings occurred Wednesday evening at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine.Seven people died at the bowling alley, and eight people died at the restaurant; three others died in transit to the hospital.A suspect in the shootings is at large and authorities continue to look for him.Local and federal authorities surrounded a home in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday evening. It was allegedly the suspect’s last known address.An arrest warrant for multiple counts of murder has been issued for the suspect. Shelter-in-place orders are issued in nearby communities.Shocked and fearful Maine residents kept to their homes for a second night Thursday as hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched intensely for Robert Card, an Army reservist authorities say fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in the worst mass killing in state history.Much of Thursday’s search focused on a property belonging to one of Card’s relatives in rural Bowdoin, where trucks and vans full of armed agents from the FBI and other agencies eventually surrounded a home. Card and anyone else inside were repeatedly ordered to surrender.“You need to come outside now with nothing in your hands. Your hands in the air,” police said through a loudspeaker. In most instances when police execute warrants — even for suspects wanted for violent crimes — they move quickly to enter the home.But hours later, after repeated announcements and a search, authorities moved off — and it was still unclear whether Card had ever been at the location, state police said. Richard Goddard, who lives on the road where the searches were taking place in Bowdoin, said he knows the Card family and that Robert knows the terrain well.“This is is his stomping ground. He grew up here. He knows every ledge to hide behind, every thicket,” he said.Video above: Dramatic search at home linked to Maine shooting suspectSeveral homes were being searched and every lead pursued in the hunt for Card, a 40-year-old with firearms instructor training. Authorities said he should be considered armed and dangerous and not approached.Card is suspected of opening fire with at least one rifle at a bar and a bowling alley Wednesday in Lewiston, which is about 15 miles from Bowdoin and is Maine’s second-largest city. The evening shootings killed 18 people and wounded 13 others, with three people still hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.Authorities haven’t said how many guns were used or how they were obtained. Schools, doctor’s offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the scenes of the shootings. Maine’s largest city, Portland, closed its public buildings, while Canada Border Services Agency issued an “armed and dangerous” alert to its officers stationed along the U.S. border.April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings took place. She turned on all her lights overnight and locked her doors. She knew someone killed at the bar and another person injured who needed surgery.“We’re praying for everyone,” Stevens said through tears. Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to find Card and to “hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable … and to seek full justice for the victims and their families.”As authorities searched for Card, details about his recent behavior emerged. Card underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically while with his reserve regiment, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” a military base.A neighbor, Dave Letarte, said Card’s family let them deer hunt on their property and were kind, although Letarte said he noticed Card appeared to have mental problems for a while.“People have problems, but you don’t expect them to go on the deep end like that,” Letarte said. “When we saw it on the news last night, I was shocked.”A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service. A woman who answered a phone number for one of Card’s relatives said Thursday afternoon the family was helping the FBI. She didn’t give her name or additional details.Eight murder warrants were issued for Card after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross.Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.The attack started at Just-In-Time Recreation, where a children’s bowling league was taking place, just before 7 p.m. Wednesday.The bowling alley reacted to the incident on social media on Thursday saying, “None of this seems real, but unfortunately it is. We are devastated for our community and our staff. We lost some amazing and whole hearted people from our bowling family and community last night. There are no words to fix this or make it better. We praying for everyone who has been affected by this horrific tragedy. We love you all and hold you close in our hearts.” “It’s a shock. It’s hard for me to explain,” Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque told WMTW at the reunification center. Levesque says victims of the shooting are people of all ages. Video below: Maine police on how Maine mass shootings unfoldedPatrick Poulin was supposed to be at the bowling center with his 15-year-old son, who is in a league that was practicing Wednesday. They stayed home, but he estimates there were probably several dozen young bowlers, ages 4 to 18, along with their parents, in the facility. Poulin’s brother was there, he said, and shepherded some of the children outside when the shooting began.“He’s pretty shook up,” Poulin said Thursday. “And it’s just sinking in today, like, wow, I was very close to being there. And a lot of the people that got hurt, I know.”Less than 15 minutes later, numerous 911 calls started coming in from Schemengees Bar and Grille a few miles away.What we know about the victims so farAuthorities have released the names of several victims in the shooting. The names of other victims will be announced when families are notified. Joesph Walker, manager at SchemengeesBob Violette, bowler at SpareTimeTricia Asselin, employee at SpareTimeSteven Vozzella, who was attending a gathering at Schemengees for those who are deaf.Bill Bracket, who was attending a gathering at Schemengees for those who are deaf.Arthur Strout, a father of five who was shot and killed at Schemengees. Tommy Condrad, manager at SpareTime. Peyton Brewer Ross, a new father, died in the shooting, according to the Maine AFL-CIO. It’s unclear where he was killed.Joshua Seal, who was a husband, a father of four and a skilled sign-language interpreter, also died in the shooting, according to Pine Tree Society, a social service organization in Maine. It’s unclear where Seal was killed.Video below: Man says former bowling coach among those killed in Maine mass shootingsWitnesses describe scene and lockdownA children’s bowling league was underway at the bowling alley when gunfire erupted, and kids are among the injured.Ten-year-old Zoey Levesque, who was there with her mother, told WMTW she was grazed by a bullet.”It’s scary,” she said. “I had never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. And it’s just like, why? Why do people do this?”Also in the bowling alley was Riley Dumont, who told ABC News that her daughter was bowling in a children’s bowling league when she heard several shots.”I heard a really loud bang. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but my dad looked at me,” Dumont said. “My dad is a retired police officer.”Dumont said her father saved the lives of many people, thanks to his quick action.Video below: Maine Gov. Mills on mass shootings: ‘I’m so deeply saddened'”Next thing I know, he was just taking the group that we were in and just corralling us in the corner,” she said. “He put tables over us and just made sure we were safe. He just kind of went into action at that point. It felt like it lasted forever.””I kind of laid on top of (my daughter), and my mom was kind of on top of me. We had two other kids with us and two other mothers as well.” Another bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.”I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon – he was holding a weapon – I just booked it,” he told The Associated Press.Video above: Man hid in bowling alley machinery during Maine mass shootingBrandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery. He was among a busload of survivors who were driven to a middle school in the neighboring city of Auburn to be reunited with family and friends.”I was putting on my bowling shoes when it started. I’ve been barefoot for five hours,” he said.The bowling alley is home to traditional tenpin bowling as well as candlepin, a variant of bowling found in New England. It’s located about 2 miles north of the Bates College campus, on the outskirts of downtown. The alley has a small bar and is popular for local bowling leagues and children’s parties.Photos released of suspectThe Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page that showed the shooter walking into an establishment with a weapon raised to his shoulder. On its website, Central Maine Medical Center said staff were “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event” and were coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients. The hospital was locked down and police, some armed with rifles, stood by the entrances. Meanwhile, hospitals as far away as Portland, about 35 miles to the south, were on alert to potentially receive victims.An order for residents and business owners to stay inside and off the streets of the city of 37,000 was extended Wednesday night from Lewiston to Lisbon, about 8 miles away, after a “vehicle of interest” was found there, authorities said.Video below: Details about Maine shooting suspect’s background emergeThe search for Card covered both land and water. The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River, but after hours of searching, they found “nothing out of the ordinary,” said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guard’s Boothbay Harbor Station.A car believed to belong to Card had been discovered by a boat launch in the town of Lisbon near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Card’s 15-foot boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said.In many past U.S. mass shootings, the suspect was found — whether dead or alive — within minutes. But Card was still on the loose a full day after the shootings.Video below: ‘Heroic efforts’ to help Maine shooting victimsBiden and other leaders react Mills released a statement echoing instructions for people to shelter. She said she had been briefed on the situation and will remain in close contact with public safety officials.President Joe Biden spoke by phone to Mills and the state’s Senate and House members, offering “full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack,” a White House statement said.On Thursday, Biden urged residents in the area where police are searching for the suspect to heed the warning of local law enforcement. “For countless Americans who have survived gun violence and been traumatized by it, a shooting such as this reopens deep and painful wounds,” he said in a statement, adding that he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the families of the victims. “Far too many Americans have now had a family member killed or injured as a result of gun violence. That is not normal, and we cannot accept it.”Biden once again called for the passage of a ban of so-called assault weapons. The president also ordered flags at half-staff to honor the victims of the shooting.Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, said he was “deeply sad for the city of Lewiston and all those worried about their family, friends and neighbors” and was monitoring the situation. King’s office said the senator would be headed directly home to Maine on the first flight possible. Video below: Vice President Kamala Harris comments on the Maine shootingAt a news conference, the Lewiston shootings prompted Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in Maine to apologize for opposing a ban on assault weapons in the past. He urged Congress to pass such a law.“I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime,” he said. “The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure.”Local schools closed as manhunt continuesAfter the shooting, police, many armed with rifles, took up positions while the city descended into eerie quiet – punctuated by occasional sirens – as people hunkered down at home. Schools were closed Thursday in Lewiston, Lisbon and Auburn, as well as municipal offices in Lewiston.People there should shelter in place or seek safety, Superintendent Jake Langlais said, adding: “Stay close to your loved ones. Embrace them.”Video above: High school freshman, father killed in Lewiston shootings, superintendent confirmsLewiston was mostly empty on an unusually warm fall day Thursday. Changeable message signs reminded people to stay behind locked doors.In Bates College in Lewiston, students stayed in dorms with the blinds closed, said Diana Florence, whose son is a sophomore. She has a daughter who is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was locked down twice last month for a shooting and a man with a gun.“I could not believe it — that this is happening again. It’s happening to my son after it just happened to my daughter,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.Video above: Maine communities eerily empty during search for gunman with military trainingThe attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Maine doesn’t require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. Keeping in mind the strong support for gun rights, lawmakers passed a “yellow flag” law in 2019 that would require police to seek a medical evaluation of anyone believed to be dangerous before then trying to take their guns away. However, critics charged that it was a weaker version of the tougher “red flag” laws that many other states have adopted.Some recent attempts by gun control advocates to tighten the state’s gun laws have failed. Proposals to require background checks for private gun sales and create a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases failed earlier this year. Proposals that focused on school security and banning bump stocks failed in 2019.State residents have also voted down some attempts to tighten gun laws in Maine. A proposal to require background checks for gun sales failed in a 2016 public vote.___Associated Press journalists Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Robert Bukaty in Lewiston, Maine; Darlene Superville and Lolita Baldor in Washington, D.C.; Michael Casey in Boston; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
- 18 people were killed and 13 were injured after shootings occurred Wednesday evening at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine.
- Seven people died at the bowling alley, and eight people died at the restaurant; three others died in transit to the hospital.
- A suspect in the shootings is at large and authorities continue to look for him.
- Local and federal authorities surrounded a home in Bowdoin, Maine, Thursday evening. It was allegedly the suspect’s last known address.
- An arrest warrant for multiple counts of murder has been issued for the suspect.
- Shelter-in-place orders are issued in nearby communities.
Shocked and fearful Maine residents kept to their homes for a second night Thursday as hundreds of heavily armed police and FBI agents searched intensely for Robert Card, an Army reservist authorities say fatally shot 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in the worst mass killing in state history.
Much of Thursday’s search focused on a property belonging to one of Card’s relatives in rural Bowdoin, where trucks and vans full of armed agents from the FBI and other agencies eventually surrounded a home. Card and anyone else inside were repeatedly ordered to surrender.
“You need to come outside now with nothing in your hands. Your hands in the air,” police said through a loudspeaker. In most instances when police execute warrants — even for suspects wanted for violent crimes — they move quickly to enter the home.
But hours later, after repeated announcements and a search, authorities moved off — and it was still unclear whether Card had ever been at the location, state police said.
Richard Goddard, who lives on the road where the searches were taking place in Bowdoin, said he knows the Card family and that Robert knows the terrain well.
“This is is his stomping ground. He grew up here. He knows every ledge to hide behind, every thicket,” he said.
Video above: Dramatic search at home linked to Maine shooting suspect
Several homes were being searched and every lead pursued in the hunt for Card, a 40-year-old with firearms instructor training. Authorities said he should be considered armed and dangerous and not approached.
Card is suspected of opening fire with at least one rifle at a bar and a bowling alley Wednesday in Lewiston, which is about 15 miles from Bowdoin and is Maine’s second-largest city. The evening shootings killed 18 people and wounded 13 others, with three people still hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.
Authorities haven’t said how many guns were used or how they were obtained.
Schools, doctor’s offices and grocery stores closed and people stayed behind locked doors in cities as far as 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the scenes of the shootings. Maine’s largest city, Portland, closed its public buildings, while Canada Border Services Agency issued an “armed and dangerous” alert to its officers stationed along the U.S. border.
April Stevens lives in the same neighborhood where one of the shootings took place. She turned on all her lights overnight and locked her doors. She knew someone killed at the bar and another person injured who needed surgery.
“We’re praying for everyone,” Stevens said through tears.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills promised to do whatever was needed to find Card and to “hold whoever is responsible for this atrocity accountable … and to seek full justice for the victims and their families.”
As authorities searched for Card, details about his recent behavior emerged. Card underwent a mental health evaluation in mid-July after he began acting erratically while with his reserve regiment, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.
A bulletin sent to police across the country after the attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this past summer after “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” a military base.
A neighbor, Dave Letarte, said Card’s family let them deer hunt on their property and were kind, although Letarte said he noticed Card appeared to have mental problems for a while.
“People have problems, but you don’t expect them to go on the deep end like that,” Letarte said. “When we saw it on the news last night, I was shocked.”
A telephone number listed for Card in public records was not in service. A woman who answered a phone number for one of Card’s relatives said Thursday afternoon the family was helping the FBI. She didn’t give her name or additional details.
Eight murder warrants were issued for Card after authorities identified eight of the victims, police said. Ten more will likely be issued once the names of the rest of the dead are confirmed, said Maine State Police Col. William Ross.
Three of the 13 people wounded in the shootings were in critical condition and five were hospitalized but stable, Central Maine Medical Center officials said.
The attack started at Just-In-Time Recreation, where a children’s bowling league was taking place, just before 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The bowling alley reacted to the incident on social media on Thursday saying, “None of this seems real, but unfortunately it is. We are devastated for our community and our staff. We lost some amazing and whole hearted people from our bowling family and community last night. There are no words to fix this or make it better. We praying for everyone who has been affected by this horrific tragedy. We love you all and hold you close in our hearts.”
“It’s a shock. It’s hard for me to explain,” Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque told WMTW at the reunification center. Levesque says victims of the shooting are people of all ages.
Video below: Maine police on how Maine mass shootings unfolded
Patrick Poulin was supposed to be at the bowling center with his 15-year-old son, who is in a league that was practicing Wednesday. They stayed home, but he estimates there were probably several dozen young bowlers, ages 4 to 18, along with their parents, in the facility. Poulin’s brother was there, he said, and shepherded some of the children outside when the shooting began.
“He’s pretty shook up,” Poulin said Thursday. “And it’s just sinking in today, like, wow, I was very close to being there. And a lot of the people that got hurt, I know.”
Less than 15 minutes later, numerous 911 calls started coming in from Schemengees Bar and Grille a few miles away.
What we know about the victims so far
Authorities have released the names of several victims in the shooting. The names of other victims will be announced when families are notified.
- Joesph Walker, manager at Schemengees
- Bob Violette, bowler at SpareTime
- Tricia Asselin, employee at SpareTime
- Steven Vozzella, who was attending a gathering at Schemengees for those who are deaf.
- Bill Bracket, who was attending a gathering at Schemengees for those who are deaf.
- Arthur Strout, a father of five who was shot and killed at Schemengees.
- Tommy Condrad, manager at SpareTime.
- Peyton Brewer Ross, a new father, died in the shooting, according to the Maine AFL-CIO. It’s unclear where he was killed.
- Joshua Seal, who was a husband, a father of four and a skilled sign-language interpreter, also died in the shooting, according to Pine Tree Society, a social service organization in Maine. It’s unclear where Seal was killed.
Video below: Man says former bowling coach among those killed in Maine mass shootings
Witnesses describe scene and lockdown
A children’s bowling league was underway at the bowling alley when gunfire erupted, and kids are among the injured.
Ten-year-old Zoey Levesque, who was there with her mother, told WMTW she was grazed by a bullet.
“It’s scary,” she said. “I had never thought I’d grow up and get a bullet in my leg. And it’s just like, why? Why do people do this?”
Also in the bowling alley was Riley Dumont, who told ABC News that her daughter was bowling in a children’s bowling league when she heard several shots.
“I heard a really loud bang. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but my dad looked at me,” Dumont said. “My dad is a retired police officer.”
Dumont said her father saved the lives of many people, thanks to his quick action.
Video below: Maine Gov. Mills on mass shootings: ‘I’m so deeply saddened’
“Next thing I know, he was just taking the group that we were in and just corralling us in the corner,” she said. “He put tables over us and just made sure we were safe. He just kind of went into action at that point. It felt like it lasted forever.”
“I kind of laid on top of (my daughter), and my mom was kind of on top of me. We had two other kids with us and two other mothers as well.”
Another bowler, who identified himself only as Brandon, said he heard about 10 shots, thinking the first was a balloon popping.
“I had my back turned to the door. And as soon as I turned and saw it was not a balloon – he was holding a weapon – I just booked it,” he told The Associated Press.
Video above: Man hid in bowling alley machinery during Maine mass shooting
Brandon said he scrambled down the length of the alley, sliding into the pin area and climbing up to hide in the machinery. He was among a busload of survivors who were driven to a middle school in the neighboring city of Auburn to be reunited with family and friends.
“I was putting on my bowling shoes when it started. I’ve been barefoot for five hours,” he said.
The bowling alley is home to traditional tenpin bowling as well as candlepin, a variant of bowling found in New England. It’s located about 2 miles north of the Bates College campus, on the outskirts of downtown. The alley has a small bar and is popular for local bowling leagues and children’s parties.
Photos released of suspect
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page that showed the shooter walking into an establishment with a weapon raised to his shoulder.
On its website, Central Maine Medical Center said staff were “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event” and were coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients. The hospital was locked down and police, some armed with rifles, stood by the entrances.
Meanwhile, hospitals as far away as Portland, about 35 miles to the south, were on alert to potentially receive victims.
An order for residents and business owners to stay inside and off the streets of the city of 37,000 was extended Wednesday night from Lewiston to Lisbon, about 8 miles away, after a “vehicle of interest” was found there, authorities said.
Video below: Details about Maine shooting suspect’s background emerge
The search for Card covered both land and water. The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat Thursday morning along the Kennebec River, but after hours of searching, they found “nothing out of the ordinary,” said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, who is in charge of the Coast Guard’s Boothbay Harbor Station.
A car believed to belong to Card had been discovered by a boat launch in the town of Lisbon near the Androscoggin River, which connects to the Kennebec, and Card’s 15-foot boat remains unaccounted for, Smith said.
In many past U.S. mass shootings, the suspect was found — whether dead or alive — within minutes. But Card was still on the loose a full day after the shootings.
Video below: ‘Heroic efforts’ to help Maine shooting victims
Biden and other leaders react
Mills released a statement echoing instructions for people to shelter. She said she had been briefed on the situation and will remain in close contact with public safety officials.
President Joe Biden spoke by phone to Mills and the state’s Senate and House members, offering “full federal support in the wake of this horrific attack,” a White House statement said.
On Thursday, Biden urged residents in the area where police are searching for the suspect to heed the warning of local law enforcement.
“For countless Americans who have survived gun violence and been traumatized by it, a shooting such as this reopens deep and painful wounds,” he said in a statement, adding that he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the families of the victims. “Far too many Americans have now had a family member killed or injured as a result of gun violence. That is not normal, and we cannot accept it.”
Biden once again called for the passage of a ban of so-called assault weapons. The president also ordered flags at half-staff to honor the victims of the shooting.
Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, said he was “deeply sad for the city of Lewiston and all those worried about their family, friends and neighbors” and was monitoring the situation. King’s office said the senator would be headed directly home to Maine on the first flight possible.
Video below: Vice President Kamala Harris comments on the Maine shooting
At a news conference, the Lewiston shootings prompted Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in Maine to apologize for opposing a ban on assault weapons in the past. He urged Congress to pass such a law.
“I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime,” he said. “The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure.”
Local schools closed as manhunt continues
After the shooting, police, many armed with rifles, took up positions while the city descended into eerie quiet – punctuated by occasional sirens – as people hunkered down at home. Schools were closed Thursday in Lewiston, Lisbon and Auburn, as well as municipal offices in Lewiston.
People there should shelter in place or seek safety, Superintendent Jake Langlais said, adding: “Stay close to your loved ones. Embrace them.”
Video above: High school freshman, father killed in Lewiston shootings, superintendent confirms
Lewiston was mostly empty on an unusually warm fall day Thursday. Changeable message signs reminded people to stay behind locked doors.
In Bates College in Lewiston, students stayed in dorms with the blinds closed, said Diana Florence, whose son is a sophomore. She has a daughter who is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which was locked down twice last month for a shooting and a man with a gun.
“I could not believe it — that this is happening again. It’s happening to my son after it just happened to my daughter,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.
Video above: Maine communities eerily empty during search for gunman with military training
The attacks stunned a state of only 1.3 million people that has one of the country’s lowest homicide rates: 29 killings in all of 2022.
The shootings mark the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
Maine doesn’t require permits to carry guns, and the state has a longstanding culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. Keeping in mind the strong support for gun rights, lawmakers passed a “yellow flag” law in 2019 that would require police to seek a medical evaluation of anyone believed to be dangerous before then trying to take their guns away. However, critics charged that it was a weaker version of the tougher “red flag” laws that many other states have adopted.
Some recent attempts by gun control advocates to tighten the state’s gun laws have failed. Proposals to require background checks for private gun sales and create a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases failed earlier this year. Proposals that focused on school security and banning bump stocks failed in 2019.
State residents have also voted down some attempts to tighten gun laws in Maine. A proposal to require background checks for gun sales failed in a 2016 public vote.
___
Associated Press journalists Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Robert Bukaty in Lewiston, Maine; Darlene Superville and Lolita Baldor in Washington, D.C.; Michael Casey in Boston; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
Read More: Manhunt continues for suspect in mass killing, fearful Maine residents remain behind locked
