What we learned, again, from the massacre in Maine

Last week, our hearts were broken once more as an evil gunman took the lives of 18 innocent people in Lewiston, Maine .

While the locations of mass shootings vary, the dynamics that lead up to these senseless tragedies are very much the same. The faces and places are unique, but the fundamentals make the storyline all too predictable.

In Maine, the suspect was an Army reservist who threatened to “shoot up” the National Guard base where he was stationed. He complained about voices in his head and even spent two weeks in a mental health facility over the summer. But despite the threats, which constitute an arrestable offense in Maine, he was still allowed to roam the streets and develop a plot to massacre nearly two dozen innocent people.

Just as predictable is the emotional but fact-deprived response from the gun control lobby. From President Joe Biden calling for an “assault weapons” ban to radical leftists pushing for law-abiding citizens to be disarmed, these programmed rhetoric exercises are baseless at best.