“SENSELESS AND TRAGIC”
President Joe Biden called Maine’s governor and officials to offer federal support, and ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast at the White House and all government buildings.
“Once again, our nation is in mourning after yet another senseless and tragic mass shooting,” he said.
Biden added that the gun violence that plagues the United States “is not normal, and we cannot accept it”, urging lawmakers to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Police and rescuers reportedly arrived at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley at about 7.15pm in response to an active shooter, and then received reports of another shooting at the Schemengees Bar & Grille.
In camera images of 40-year-old Card at the bowling alley, he appeared calm and composed as he moved through the doorway with his rifle raised.
Another survivor, Riley Dumont, said she and her family fled to a corner of the bowling venue and hid behind tables and a bench.
“I was laying on top of my daughter. My mother was laying on top of me,” Dumont told ABC News.
“It felt like it lasted a lifetime,” she added. “I just remember people sobbing and crying.”
Officers located a “vehicle of interest” – a white sport utility vehicle (SUV) – in Lisbon, a town around 12km from Lewiston.
The shooting is one of the deadliest since 2017, when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in Las Vegas, killing about 60 people.
Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, a country where there are more guns than people and where attempts to clamp down on their spread are always met with stiff resistance.
The country has recorded at least 565 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a non-governmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.
Wednesday’s attack was the deadliest mass shooting in 2023 so far, according to the GVA’s data.
Efforts to tighten gun controls have for years run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms.
The political paralysis endures despite widespread outrage over recurring shootings.
Source: CNA
