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After Maine Gun Massacre, Fox Defaults To ‘Mental Health’ ‘Solution’

Posted by Brian -5pc on October 29, 2023 · Flag

A mentally ill Army reservist was able to massacre 18 people and wound 13 more in Maine with a high-powered rifle, but that’s no reason to tighten up any gun laws!

Yesterday, Fox News’ trotted out Maine’s former governor, Paul LePage to banish the thought of new gun laws from viewers’ minds.

Host Neil Cavuto described LePage as “a very important person to talk to” about the mass shootings.

LePage called the massacre “a terrible, terrible situation” before pivoting to calling for more to be done about mental health. “There’s a mental health element to this, and Maine has a yellow flag law, and so I think I would recommend that they have a complete investigation go on because [the shooter] was, as I understand it, was in a military hospital in New York, he got released to come back to Maine,” he said.

“If the law’s in place and there’s mental health issues, we have to deal with that, this country,” LePage continued. “It’s a very, very critical issue that we face, and most of these mass murders involve mental issues.” He added that mental health issues have been ignored “for like 20 years, 25 years.”

FACT CHECK: LePage had a terrible record on social services, including an order diverting funding from mental health services. That was not mentioned.

Also? LePage could probably benefit from some mental health services, himself.

To his credit, host Neil Cavuto suggested that more stringent gun laws might be a good thing.

“Is it a matter of toughening our gun laws? Is it a matter of toughening up who gets guns?” Cavuto asked. “How do you see it going forward because I suspect, sadly, this will not be the last such incident?”

LePage replied, “Before we have a discussion about gun laws and take, you know, firearms away from law-abiding citizens and making criminals out of them because they bought the guns when it was legal and now these gun control bans, what they do is they make you a criminal. Before they do that, we need to evaluate a lot of these mass murders and see what correlation it has to mental illness, and I believe the whole discussion with gun control has to involve mental illness.”

This “very important person” didn’t mention the causes of gun violence nor that gun massacres fell 37% during the assault weapons ban, and soared 183% after its expiration. But it's no surprise gun regulations were dismissed by LePage. "Mental health" has long been one of the right-wing's go-to position after mass shootings, along with accusing the left of "politicizing tragedy" or blaming Democrats and/or progressives, period.

You can watch it below, from the October 28, 2023 Cavuto Live.

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Dave Wright commented 2023-10-31 09:56:50 -0400 · Flag
I had a mentally ill father and am glad he never got near a gun. Mental health is a real problem and needs to be dealt with. We need more facilities. But that should not deflect from the fact there are too many guns available willy-nilly.

LePage is right about one thing. This is going to happen again — and the NRA doesn’t give a damn it will.
John McKee commented 2023-10-31 00:42:06 -0400 · Flag
I play backgammon on a site called It’sYourTurn (recommended) and one of my regular opponents lives in Maine. Seems like a pleasant fella from our occasional interactions, and I gave him my commiserations after the slaughter. To my surprise, he launched into a tirade about immigrants, of all things, and how they are ruining his precious state. Never mind that the shooter was a middle-aged white man from that very state. Oh well. I told him politely that we clearly disagreed, wished him well and closed the conversation.
scooter commented 2023-10-30 12:03:39 -0400 · Flag
I can’t anymore. This only happens in America. It’s not a mental health issue, it’s not a lone wolf. It’s angry white males with easy unfettered access to guns, radicalized by RW hate radio & TV. It’s the GD guns.








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