The family of Robert Card, the suspected October 25, 2023, Lewiston, Maine, shooter, “contacted police with concerns about his mental health” five months before he allegedly opened fire and killed 18 people, according to the Washington Post.
Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry indicated Card’s family contacted his office on May 3, 2023. He said the family believed Card’s mental had begun a downward spiral in January 2023 and “they were worried about his well-being and noting his access to guns.”
An incident report filed by Sheriff Merry shows that Card’s ex-wife informed law enforcement that Card had recently picked up a number of guns from his brother’s house. And Card’s son observed that his father began hearing voices in January. (On October 26, 2023, Breitbart News pointed out Card had reported hearing voices in his head.)
ABC News reported that Card tried to buy a firearm suppressor three months before the shooting rampage, but was denied the purchase because of an answer he gave on ATF firearm transfer form 4473.
Card replied “yes” to a question asking, “Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?”
Card was discovered deceased of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 7:45 p.m. October 27, 2023. The next day, Maine Commissioner of Public Safety Mike Sauschuck indicated Card was never involuntarily committed for mental health issues and was therefore not barred from passing a firearm background check.
This creates two different narratives: 1. The one Card presented when he tried unsuccessfully to purchase a suppressor. 2. The one Commissioner Sauschuck presented when explaining how Card could have passed a background check for the gun he used to kill 18 people.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
