Since the deadliest mass murder in the state of Maine, police have increasingly applied the “Yellow Flag” law

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Since the deadliest mass killing in state history, there has been a sharp increase in the number of requests from law enforcement to Maine courts to allow the confiscation of guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, the governor said Friday.

Maine’s extreme hazard protection law was tightened after an Army reservist killed 18 people at two locations in the city of Lewiston last October. Since the attacks, the law has been used 15 times more often than in the previous three years, Governor Janet Mills said at a news conference.

“It is clear that after the tragedy of last year, more and more police officers across the state are taking this law seriously, attending state-provided training on its application, and now using it on a daily basis to take firearms away from people who should not have them,” Mills said.

The governor did not say how many times courts have granted requests under the tougher law. Gun control advocates say these so-called yellow flag and red flag laws are crucial to keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people, including those with serious mental illnesses. Some in the gun lobby argue that such laws violate people’s constitutional right to bear arms.

Mills’ press conference came hours after the State Police released a report outlining lessons learned from the Oct. 25, 2023 mass shooting and making numerous recommendations to improve tactical response, incident management, training and other areas.

One of the report’s key recommendations is that state police should introduce new school shooting training “to enable a more coordinated response to serious incidents and/or incidents involving large numbers of victims.”

The shooting took place at a bowling alley and a bar-restaurant. It was later determined that the shooter was an army reservist whose mental health had deteriorated in the months before the attacks.

The shooter, Robert Card, was found dead after a long search. Mills commissioned an independent commission to investigate the circumstances of the attack.

The commission released its own report last month, and Mills spoke publicly about it for the first time Friday. The report says the Army Reserve and police missed opportunities to intervene in Card’s mental health crisis and take steps to confiscate his weapons.

The governor said she agreed with those conclusions. She also said the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office could have applied the risk protection order but did not. In fact, according to state records, there are no documented instances of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office ever applying the order before the shootings.

“At its core, this tragedy was caused by a colossal failure of human judgment by several individuals on multiple occasions; a serious negligence which, as the Commission rightly found, amounted to a denial of all responsibility,” Mills said.

Mills also noted the newly released findings of the state police review. The New England State Police Administrators Compact will conduct an independent review of the new report, state police said. Mills said she welcomed the move.

The state police report was not just a summary of what went wrong. It also outlined areas where agencies followed best practice standards. In a section evaluating the work of the Maine State Police Tactical Team, officials concluded that “overall, the manhunt was a success” and Card was found within 48 hours without any other injuries to people or officers.

However, the report also pointed to other problems, including an “overwhelming and uncontrolled influx” of self-dispatched officers to the crime scene.

The report describes the response to two 911 calls from Card’s mother’s home. While a tactical unit prepared to send an armored vehicle, a group of U.S. Marshals arrived and cleared the house. In another case, a team in an armored vehicle raced onto a bridge near where Card’s car was found, nearly colliding with other law enforcement officers working there in the dark.

The report recommends that self-deployment warnings be included in annual police training and that in an emergency, officers should either notify command of their response or wait to be dispatched.

It also recommends searching a suspect’s home as soon as possible, noting that Card’s home was not searched until more than 14 hours after the shooting.

“Areas of interest, such as the suspect’s vehicle, must be evaluated immediately, not many hours later, based on arrest information,” it says.

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