President Joe Biden speaks at Just-In-Time Recreation Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, in Lewiston, Maine, about the mass shooting last week. and first lady Jill Biden stood for a moment of silence and placed a bouquet of white flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Schemengees Bar and Grille, one of the scenes of the state's deadliest mass shooting.
Authorities said this week that Card's family had brought their concerns about his deteriorating mental health to the local sheriff five months before the deadly rampage. He had also undergone a mental health evaluation after he began behaving erratically at a training facility last summer. The president has visited many other communities scarred by mass shootings. He's been to Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas, and Monterey Park, California, just in roughly the past year.
There were also memorials paying tribute to victims outside Just-In-Time, the bowling alley where the shootings began. The sign outside read: “Lewiston Strong! Remembering our loss Oct. 25 2023.”“It’s very encouraging to have a president who wants to speak about gun safety. For too long, politicians have maybe felt that way, but they were maybe afraid to say it,” she said.
Overall, stricter gun laws are desired by a majority of Americans, regardless of what the current gun laws are in their state, according to an AP/NORC poll.Biden was notified of the shootings as he hosted a White House state dinner honoring Australia last week. He stepped out of the event to speak by telephone with Maine Gov. Janet Mills and the state’s representatives in Congress. On Friday, both Mills and Lewiston mayor Carl Sheline said the community was working to heal.