Maine gun attacks: Biden urges Republicans to back gun control laws after 18 killed and 13 wounded

US president Joe Biden has again urged his Republican political opponents to back new gun control measures following the latest mass shooting in the country. The governor of Maine Janet Mills said on Thursday that 18 people had been killed and a further 13 were injured when a gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar in the city of Lewiston.

Police said that an arrest warrant had been issued for a 40-year-old man identified as Robert Card. He is an army reservist and weapons instructor who, according to a US police bulletin, experienced a mental health crisis during the summer and was admitted for a time to a psychiatric facility.

Hundreds of armed police spent much of Thursday hunting for the gunman who left the scene after firing shots at people in the bowling alley and bar in two separate attacks on Wednesday evening.

Mr Biden said on Thursday that far too many Americans had a family member killed or injured as a result of gun violence. He added: “That is not normal, and we cannot accept it.”

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There have been 565 mass shooting incidents across the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It defines a mass shooting as one which four or more people were killed or wounded.

Just hours after the shootings in Maine, five people were found shot dead in a separate incident in a house in North Carolina.

Mr Biden said while his administration had made progress on gun safety by means of legislation introduced last year, as well as about two dozen executive actions he had put in place and the establishment of the White House gun violence prevention office, these measures were not enough.

“In the wake of yet another tragedy I urge Republican lawmakers in Congress to fulfil their duty to protect the American people. Work with us to pass a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers. This is the very least we owe every American who will now bear the scars – physical and mental – of this latest attack.”

In Maine on Thursday public schools were closed and police urged residents to stay indoors.

“This is a dark day for Maine,” governor Mills said at a press conference. “Mr Card is considered armed and dangerous and police advise that Maine people should not approach him under any circumstances.”

Maine State Police found a white SUV they believe Mr Card drove to the town of Lisbon, about 11km to the southeast, and urged people to remain indoors in both Lewiston and Lisbon. Early on Thursday police also told residents in the town of Bowdoin, about 19km east of Lewiston, to shelter. Card lives in Bowdoin, according to public records.

A police bulletin identified Card as a trained firearms instructor at the US army reserve base in Saco, Maine. It said he recently maintained he had been hearing voices and experiencing other mental health issues.

US media reported that the police bulletin said Card had threatened to open fire at the National Guard base in Saco and was “reported to have been committed to mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released”.

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The US army said Card was a sergeant and a petroleum supply specialist in the army reserve who had not been deployed in combat since enlisting in 2002.

Police said the shooting began shortly before 7pm at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. A short time later they received reports of a shooting at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant about 5km away.

Lewiston is a former textile hub about 56km north of Maine’s largest city, Portland, and home to about 38,000 people. Guns are lightly regulated in Maine, a largely rural state near the northeast border with Canada, where about half of all adults live in a household with a gun, according to a 2020 study by Rand Corporation.

The shooting has put a focus on the operation of the yellow flag law in Maine which can allow police to remove a gun from someone deemed to present a danger.