Sen. Angus King is not fit to represent Maine in the U.S. Senate. On Oct. 25, 2023, King voted for the Kennedy Amendment. Tragically, later that very day, Robert Card, an Army reservist, committed a mass shooting in Lewiston, killing 18, including a 14-year-old, and injuring 13 others. It resulted in closure of the second-largest economic center in the state for two days.

Gov. Janet Mills recently stated that the Oct. 25 shooting was caused by “a colossal failure of human judgment by several people, on several occasions.” That colossal judgment failure extends to King, whose vote for the Kennedy Amendment will result in more mass shootings and veteran suicides.

King’s Senate office on the morning of Oct. 25 was informed by retired U.S. Navy Capt. Dan Lynch, of Freeport, that voting for the Kennedy Amendment would result in more shooting deaths and veteran suicides. The following is taken from Lynch’s op-ed published in the Oct. 28, 2023, Press Herald (“Veterans’ gun rights amendment paves way for the next tragedy“):

“The Kennedy Amendment was attached by Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, to the bill funding the Department of Veterans Affairs. It limits VA’s ability to notify the FBI when a veteran has been deemed by medical professionals as mentally incompetent or incapable to manage their own affairs. Normally, any person with such a diagnosis is added to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and thus prohibited from purchasing firearms. But a majority of the Senate think that veterans should be exempt from such restrictions.”

The amendment passed 53-45, with King voting with every Republican senator for the amendment. All but three Democrats voted against it. On March 9, 2024, to fund the Department of Veterans Affairs, President Biden signed the appropriations bill that included the Kennedy Amendment, so it is now law. There was plenty of time between Oct. 25 and March 9 for Sen. King or Sen. Susan Collins to try to repeal the amendment.

How does King’s colossal failure affect you and our community?

There are 16 million veterans. More than 6,000 commit suicide every year. Firearms are used in 71% of veteran suicides. Way to go, Sen. King. The U.S. is now averaging more than 600 mass shootings per year. Since 2015, more than 19,000 people have been shot and wounded or killed in a mass shooting. At least 31% of all mass shootings are committed by veterans. Veterans comprise 6.2% of the nation’s population. Thus, veterans are five times more likely to commit a mass shooting than non-veterans. Way to go, Sen. King.

Death by firearm is the number one cause of death of Americans under 20. Healthdata.org reports for 2021 there were 4.5 firearm homicides in the U.S. per 100,000 people, Canada 0.62, Great Britain 0.01. In 2021, there were 48,830 total firearm deaths in the U.S. In Maine, only the city of Portland at 69,104 has a greater population. Way to go, Sen. King.

Within a few weeks of the Card shooting, Sen. King was deflecting his judgment failures by projecting them onto the U.S. Army’s failure to prevent the Card shooting. Within a few years, Robert Card would have become a veteran. Now, due to King’s vote for the Kennedy Amendment, the VA will not put the future thousands of Robert Cards on the FBI firearm purchase prohibition list.

Either Sen. King calculated that by voting for the Kennedy Amendment he would keep the gun lobby happy and there would not be a mass shooting in Maine’s near future (actually, in 2023, there were two Maine mass shootings), or his brain has become addled.

If you want change, you must make change by voting to replace Sen. Angus King.