Did You Notice?

Today we’ll be going on a sort of pilgrimage, so I won’t be around for a good part of the day. We’re driving up to Holy Hill. The basilica

is in an area of Wisconsin known as the Kettle Moraine, for it’s glacial formations. I spent a good part of my younger years in the Waukesha County portion of this area. Hopefully there will still be some lingering fall colors.

Now, have you noticed how swiftly the recent tragic events in Maine have, largely, vanished from the news? We all know why, right? It was one more in a long series of incidents in which gun laws weren’t enforced, despite repeated warnings that the perp was a danger to himself and others. And these warnings were far from generalized or vague voicings of concern. They were extremely specific, leaving nothing to the imagination. The Daily Signal does a good job of bringing all the known facts together.

Army Reservist Warned Maine Shooter Was ‘Going To Snap And Do A Mass Shooting’ Weeks Before Massacre

That should have been specific enough to get some official attention, and in fact it did. Just not nearly the amount of attention that was demanded based on all the additional known and documented circumstances:

ABC News reported late this week that the shooter, who The Daily Wire is not naming due to company policy about not giving notoriety to mass killers, scared a fellow Army reservist so much that the reservist warned Army reserve training supervisor Kelvin L. Mote back in September that the passcode to the unit gate needed to be changed and that he needed to be armed if the shooter showed up.

“Please. I believe he’s messed up in the head,” the reservist texted Mote, adding that the shooter might “threaten the unit” and “other places.”

“I love [him] to death but i do not know how to help him and he refuses to get help or continue help,” the texts said. “I’m afraid he’s going to [expletive] up his life from hearing things he thinks he heard.”

“And yes he still has all of his weapons,” the texts added. “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”

To his credit, the supervisor did contact the locals, who had already had this guy involuntarily institutionalized in the recent past—which is what the reservist was obviously referring to when he wrote “refuses to get help or continue help.” Both the reservist and his supervisor were aware the guy had been institutionalized as a danger to himself and/or others. Again, this is why the supervisor reported to the locals that the guy’s mental health had “only gotten worse.” Worse since having been institutionalized.

Mote later contacted local law enforcement to conduct a welfare check on the shooter and Mote noted that the shooter had been “hearing voices” and that his mental health had “only gotten worse.”

The shooter had mental health issues that included “hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME,” a law enforcement bulletin said. “[The shooter] was also reported to have been committed to mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released.”

I interpret this next paragraph to mean that the Army decided that this guy shouldn’t have access to Army weapons or ammunition, but that would not have precluded him from possessing personal firearms off the base—without some affirmative action by the locals to confiscate those weapons and ammunition.

After his involuntary psychiatric commitment in July, the Army “decided he shouldn’t have a weapon, handle ammunition or ‘participate in live fire activity,'” according to a report from CBS News.

In the circumstances it appears that the Army did do what it was able to do to alert the local authorities to the imminent threat this guy presented. Maine laws clearly authorized the seizure of any firearms and ammunition in his possession. My one reservation is whether the Army should have gotten in touch with ATF about this guy. OTOH, perhaps they did.

The fact that the suspect was committed to a mental health facility for a period of weeks indicates that it was an involuntary commitment, which means that he would have been banned from owning or possessing firearms.

The ATF states: “Any person who has been ‘adjudicated as a mental defective’ or ‘committed to a mental institution’ is prohibited under Federal law from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing any firearm or ammunition.”

Presumably the locals could have acted under Maine law or called in the ATF to act under federal law. One more failure of the legal system that appears to be in the process of being swept under a carpet. Is this another example of official paralysis based on fear of law suits? In the circumstances, in view of all the documentation that would’ve been involved, it’s hard to see how that could have been a factor.