Police continue to search for an armed and dangerous man who committed mass shootings at two businesses in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 people dead and 13 wounded.
Robert R. Card, 40, of Bowdoin, has been identified as the suspect in the shootings at Just-In-Time Recreation, a bowling alley, and Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant, which is four miles away from the bowling alley.
Seven people, including one female and six males, were killed at Just-In-Time Recreation. Eight people were killed in the shooting at Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant, including seven men inside and one man outside the business.
Eight of the victims have been identified, and their families have been notified. The other ten victims still have not been identified.
Maine does not have the death penalty, so the killer likely incurred no added penalty for killing many people rather than just a few.
The death penalty could save lives by deterring people from committing murder. Several studies found that it deters killings of innocent people. As the Associated Press noted in 2007, “Each execution deters an average of 18 murders, according to a 2003 nationwide study by professors at Emory University. (Other studies have estimated the deterred murders per execution at three, five, and 14).”
Maine resident Albert Flick murdered a woman, stabbing her 11 times in front of her kids. He had previously served 25 years for killing his wife by stabbing her 14 times in front of her daughter. He could not have killed again if he had been executed earlier.
More gun control laws would probably not do much to reduce the risk of mass shootings like this. States with the least gun laws and fewest gun controls tend to have lower homicide rates and lower crime rates than the average state. Law Professor Eugene Volokh, writing at the Washington Post, noted that “states with more gun restrictions on average have very slightly higher homicide rates, though the tendency is so small as to be essentially zero.”
Many countries with stricter gun control laws have had mass shootings. A mass shooting in Norway took 77 lives in 2011. Germany has had several mass murders, including five murdered in Dilligen, 13 in Albertville, and 17 in Erfurt. Other countries with mass killings have included Switzerland (14 in Zug); France (14 in Luxiol); Britain (12 in Cumbria in 2010); Spain (9 in Puerto Hurraco).
Kenya has extremely strict laws against the possession or carrying of firearms, as detailed in a Quinnipiac Law Review article. But it has had many mass shootings. On April 2, 2015, criminals murdered 142 students at the University College Campus of Garissa, in northeastern Kenya. Among the other mass shootings in Kenya in recent years are those at Lamu (29 murdered, July 5-6, 2014), Mpeketoni (53 murdered, June 15-17, 2014), Majembeni and Poromoko (15 murdered, two days after Mpekoni) and the Westgate Mall in Nairobi (67 murdered, Sept. 21, 2013).
