U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine speaks on the Senate floor in favor of her bill, the Armed Forces Crisis Intervention Notification Act, introduced in response to the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine. (Screenshot via CSPAN)
Approaching the first anniversary of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, the state’s two U.S. senators put forth a bill aimed to ensure the military uses state crisis intervention laws when a service member poses a threat to themselves or others.
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, introduced this bipartisan bill, the Armed Forces Crisis Intervention Notification Act, also co-sponsored by independent U.S. Sen. Angus King, in response to the Oct. 25, 2023, shooting and multiple investigations that have since found multi-agency failures in the lead up to the mass casualty event.
The U.S. Army Inspector General released its report in July, which Collins and King called for shortly after the shooting, and the independent state commission appointed by Gov. Janet Mills released its final report last month — finding the Army Reserve and local law enforcement failed to undertake necessary steps to reduce the threat posed by the shooter, Robert Card II, before he killed 18 people and injured 13 others.
The Army Reserve had several procedural breakdowns and authorities insufficiently followed protocol related to the deteriorating mental health of Card, an army reservist, the inspector general report found. The commission report also concluded that the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office had sufficient probable cause to both take Card into protective custody under Maine’s yellow flag law and start a petition to confiscate his firearms.
“This bill is premised on my belief, which is supported by the findings of the investigations, that state crisis intervention programs should be fully utilized by our military when appropriate and with adequate due process protections,” Collins said on the Senate floor Monday. “This can only happen, however, if relevant information is shared in a timely and effective manner.”
The legislation would address the lack of coordination and communication demonstrated by the armed forces and relevant state, county and local authorities in the lead up to the Lewiston shooting by directing the military to “fully utilize” state crisis intervention programs in circumstances when the risk of harm is the greatest, Collins explained.
“‘Fully utilized’ is defined in the bill to mean taking action available to third-parties under a state crisis intervention program and providing relevant material facts to appropriate law enforcement or judicial personnel,” Collins said, adding that in Card’s case, while the Army Reserve determined he shouldn’t have access to military weapons and sent him for mental health treatment, “regrettably, it did not provide civilian law enforcement in Maine, where he resided, or in New York, where he was training, with all of the relevant information that it had.”
While the final state commission report placed blame on the local sheriff’s office, the commission concluded that the office might have acted more assertively if leaders of Card’s Army Reserve unit had presented a full and complete accounting of his deteriorating mental health and the threat he posed.
In addition to directing the armed forces to fully use such state programs, the bill calls for the military to produce relevant evidence in judicial proceedings authorized as part of these programs.
Gov. Janet Mills announced her support for this legislation prior to its official introduction during a press conference earlier this month in response to the final commission report, backing the governor reiterated on Monday.
“I thank Senator Collins for her thoughtful work on this legislation and Senator King for cosponsoring it,” Mills wrote in a statement. “Providing the military with this authority will equip them with another tool to address potentially dangerous situations among military personnel and close communication gaps, which will help protect people, prevent violence, and save lives.”
While requiring that the military follow state crisis intervention laws, the legislation still protects Second Amendment rights, Collins said.
“It would not create a federal crisis intervention program, or impose new requirements on states, or alter existing state programs, or direct states to adopt such crisis intervention programs,” Collins said on the Senate floor. “The bill preserves the ability of states to craft their own crisis intervention programs.”
The bill also doesn’t alter the military’s existing authority to disarm service members of their issued weapons in a broad range of situations that are unrelated to a serious, credible threat of violence or involuntary commitment to a mental hospital.
“Nothing that we can do can take away the pain, the shock, and the understandable anger felt by the families who lost loved ones last October,” Collins said. “But we can and we should take legislative and administrative actions in response to the Lewiston tragedy. By taking such actions, we have a chance to help service members in crisis. We have a chance to help protect our neighbors, our families, our communities. We have a chance to save lives.”
Reiterating this focus on prevention, King wrote in a statement that a wide range of approaches are needed to address the complex public safety threat, also noting his prior support for the Blast Overpressure Safety Act, a bipartisan bill aimed to better protect service members from the physical and cognitive dangers of shockwaves from explosive weapons in combat and training, as well as brain screenings of service members.
Of the legislation introduced Monday, King added, “this legislation strengthens the information sharing practices that can literally be the difference between life and death.”
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