Josh, can I just have you pause for one moment? I want you to finish this thought, but I want people to know what they're watching right now. And this is video that we have just obtained, you can see people running. They are running from the bowling alley that we believe is the site of one of these shootings here in Maine that we are covering at this moment. [00:00:17] This breaking news coming in there's this video of people sprinting from the bowling alley. You can see several people here. I mean, what does that tell you about how potentially crowded I mean, it's a bowling alley on a Wednesday night if this is the scene of an active shooting, Josh. [00:00:33] >> At least 18 people have been killed and at least 13 people injured as a result of yet another mass shooting, this time taking place at a bowling alley in a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine. Now, we have to note that there has been contested information regarding the death [00:00:48] toll, the injury toll, and the shooting locations. As this is a developing situation and an ongoing manhunt, it's difficult to get exact information coming out of Lewiston. But however, we are going to stick to sources aligning with the information being given by the Maine police. [00:01:06] Now, here are those details from AP News. Lewiston police said they were dealing with an active shooter incident Wednesday evening at Schemengees Bar and Grill and at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley about 4 miles away. A number of parents and [00:01:21] children were at Sparetime as part of a children's bowling league. Now, here is ten year old Zoe Levesky, who was present at the bowling alley and was also grazed by a bullet. She recounted that moment with her mom on CNN, and she is in surprisingly and fortunately good spirits. [00:01:40] >> Speaker 2: She was grazed by a bullet while we were running. >> Speaker 2: I never thought I'd grow up and get a bullet in my leg. And it's just like, why do people do this? [00:01:55] >> Speaker 2: And she's asking a good question and of course, as I mentioned, she's in good spirits in that video. But there's no way to know how this is gonna impact her living through this traumatic incident, moving forward, and for the rest of her life. After the shooting, Lewiston police shared images of a man walking into what appears [00:02:13] to be the bowling alley holding a high powered assault style rifle. There he is, usually we would not show images of mass shooters because oftentimes mass shooters want to shroud themselves in glory for the incident. But because he has not yet been caught, we think it's important to show his image. [00:02:31] He hasn't been identified, but police are calling a man by the name of Robert C Card as the person of interest in this case. Take a look. >> Speaker 3: The investigation into the person responsible for this identified a vehicle located at the Jebscott Boat landing in Lisbon. [00:02:50] That person, through the registration of that vehicle was identified that's been stated earlier as a Robert Card. Currently, there is an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder for Mr. Card, and the reason it's eight counts because ten people have not yet been identified. [00:03:08] As those people are identified, the counts will probably go to the total of 18. >> Speaker 2: Card has yet to be apprehended, but is considered armed and dangerous. From CNN, Card is a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserves. [00:03:24] Law enforcement officials in Maine told CNN, he had recently threatened to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility in Saco, Maine, and reported mental health issues, including hearing voices, the officials said. I want you to keep that in mind as I reiterate that he was not only allowed to [00:03:42] have access to a gun, he was allowed to carry out firearm trainings after this incident, after reporting that he had inclinations to carry out a mass shooting. Just keep that in mind as we continue on. A US official also told the Associated Press he had been taken by police for [00:03:59] an evaluation after military officials became concerned that he was acting erratically back in mid July. Multiple businesses, schools and public buildings were closed in Lewiston and surrounding cities today, out of caution as the search continues for Card. [00:04:14] Maine's Governor Janet Mills also spoke at a press conference to give her condolences. >> Speaker 4: I'm so deeply sad, as is every one of the 1.3 million people of this beautiful state. This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, [00:04:32] on its peace of mind, [COUGH] On its sense of security. No city does, no state, no people. No words can truly or fully measure the grief of many people today. [00:04:48] Our small state of just 1.3 million people has long been known as one of the safest states in the nation. This attack strikes at the very heart of who we are and the values we hold dear for this precious place we call home. [00:05:06] >> Speaker 2: Now, if you were wondering about gun regulations in Maine, they are very lax. From AP News maine doesn't require permits to carry guns, and the state has a long standing culture of gun ownership that is tied to its traditions of hunting and sport shooting. [00:05:25] And Ben, we're gonna get into the Republican reactions to this mass shooting, among other mass shootings, a little bit later in the show. But first, I just wanna say that I think the claim that it's too soon to talk about the politics side of things is always a ridiculous claim to make because political [00:05:42] problems require political solutions, in my opinion. And the ease with which this man was allowed to gain access to a weapon is concerning. And the fact that he had all of these red flags, that what should have alerted gun sellers and state officials that this man was armed and [00:06:01] dangerous and possibly going to carry out a mass shooting. The fact that none of those flags were noticed or paid attention to or no action was taken to prevent this from happening, it's disturbing and it's a story we as reporters have to cover time and time again. [00:06:19] >> Speaker 5: Yeah, it is really, really incredible that despite the enormous amount of tragic loss of life over and over again in this country, we keep taking no significant action. There was marginal gun restrictions passed in the last Congress, [00:06:38] but nothing that is gonna significantly change an instance like this. And as you said, Maine has very lax gun laws and yet Republicans are saying we need more lax gun laws. They're already saying it, we're gonna be covering that in a moment. [00:06:56] And it's just completely insane that even in the face of the facts that fly right in the face of their own arguments, they keep making the same arguments like they're robots. Like they might be AI or something that's programmed to kill us because [00:07:12] they do not seem to have any interest in anything that can reduce gun violence. They think the answer to gun violence is more gun violence, it's disgusting and I don't know what the answer is, but it's not what they're doing. >> Speaker 2: And we've seen very recently, [00:07:29] gun violence become the number one cause of death of children in this country. And this is the same group of people who always says that they're just trying to protect the children when it comes to legislating anti LGBTQ laws, making it almost impossible for school children to access books that have queer characters. [00:07:47] In those cases, they're just trying to protect the children. But when we're actually needing to address the leading cause of death of children in this country, we don't need to protect the kids anymore. We need to protect the NRA, we need to insulate gun owners, we need to insulate gun manufacturers from any sort of liability for [00:08:05] the weapons that they market. We can't address gun culture, we need to celebrate it. >> Speaker 5: Well, Ray, I don't know if you know this, but 98% of children who are the victims of gun violence, it happened because right before they read a book with a gay character. [00:08:21] >> [LAUGH] >> And so you do have to blame the books. I mean, it's just the most insane, these people are just ridiculous. Their ability to focus on what affects no lives in any significant way and to ignore the most egregious things. [00:08:36] It's a crime against humanity, really, it's a crime against their own people, our own people and I don't know, there's obviously no talking sense into them. Voting them out of power is the only option. >> Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And just a little bit more about the senseless gun violence that Americans [00:08:53] experience. Now, this mass shooting with a death toll currently of 18, again, that number could rise as more information comes out. It's still chaotic in the state of Maine, in the city of Lewiston, as they continue to try to get accurate information, but the current death toll of 18. [00:09:12] This rampage appears to be the deadliest mass shooting of 2023 in the United States. It's also the deadliest mass shooting since a gunman in May 2022 killed 19 students and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas. From AP News, the shooting in the state's second-largest city [00:09:31] is the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, 36 just this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. The database includes every mass killing since 2006 from all weapons in which four [00:09:48] or more people, excluding the offender, were killed within a 24 hours time frame. And as I said, obviously the story is still developing and more information will be coming out over the next few days. But reading that, that it's the largest mass shooting since Uvalde, [00:10:04] it just hit me pretty difficulty because there was a moment after Uvalde where everyone believed things were gonna change this time. There's no way they can turn a blind eye to this horrific tragedy, 19 children brutally murdered, the police stood outside for [00:10:21] over an hour before they went in to neutralize the perpetrator. There were people on scene at the time, police officers who could have used their weapons, the supposed good guys with the guns who didn't who didn't go in, who waited over an hour before they finally entered the scene, [00:10:40] who didn't use their guns. The supposed good guys with the guns did not use their guns to protect these children. And what happened? The state of Texas passed a mandate that requires an armed police officer stationed at every elementary school, an unfunded mandate to do that. [00:10:57] We got some small gun control at the federal level that every expert says would not have prevented that type of shooting. And here we are, little over a year later, deadliest shooting since then, and really nothing has changed. [00:11:13] And it's frustrating cuz you see these parents who have to become activists, right? These parents who lose their children, and then they dedicate their lives in the pursuit of preventing other parents from losing their children in these senseless, shootings try to prevent people from [00:11:28] losing their loved ones in these senseless acts of violence. And their pleas fall on deaf ears because the voices, and more importantly, the money of the NRA, the gun lobby, speaks so much more loudly to our elected officials. Which is why and it's a topic we talk about a lot here on TYT, money, and [00:11:46] politics. But it does come back to money and politics, the ability of these lobbies to capture our politicians, because there's no person in this country who shouldn't feel moved, who shouldn't feel an emotional reaction when they hear the news of these shootings. [00:12:04] And yet, instead of a meaningful response from our elected officials, who have the power, who have the authority to do something about this, all we get are thoughts and prayers and some of the ridiculous stuff we're about to cover in the next story. But it just, it makes me feel sick. [00:12:21] I said that, but I'll reiterate it, it makes me feel sick. >> Speaker 5: Uvalde is maybe the best example because Texas basically is a gun. It's a giant gun. And the fact that the gun state can't do anything to stop gun violence within its own borders just proves the absurdity of [00:12:40] the argument of people that are against gun regulations. I've debated Republicans on this, many debated, went back and forth with Tommy Larin on this, and she, in the wake of another mass shooting, said, but the Second Amendment doesn't say you have to register. [00:12:58] And I'm like, yeah, it's one sentence written hundreds of years ago, you can still use your brain and use common sense to evolve your opinion, to add common sense things to keep people safe. You do it all the time, you adjust things and opinions all the time on all issues [00:13:16] that you are interested in changing that aren't explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, it's an absurd excuse to keep a cowboy culture. Shoot them up. Woohoo. Let children's lives be damned, let people's lives be damned at a bowling alley having a family night out, it's disgusting. [00:13:33] And they have blood on their hands, they have blood on their hands if you fight against common sense regulations because especially to remind everybody yet again, nobody's advocating for taking away your right to bear arms. Nobody's going against the core of the Second Amendment, [00:13:49] we are just saying a common sense regulation that can keep people safe, people with mental illness, take it away. Red flag laws, be able to remove guns from people who are currently undergoing mental illness episodes so that people are coming off as violent, that they can be kept safe. [00:14:08] That people around them can be kept safe from potentially horrible episodes, people with horrible records that you shouldn't be able to get guns. These are common sense, easy things and if you still stick by your Second Amendment, it's just insane. Even though it's only one sentence, to only care about half of that sentence, [00:14:28] to only focus on the right to bear arms, can't be infringed and ignore the of a well regulated militia part. You ain't in a militia, so just shut your mouth and open your heart a little. >> Speaker 2: Right? And I mean, in law school, studying the interpretations of the Constitution, [00:14:46] I always found originalism to be one of the most absurd. The idea that we need to now, in this year of our lore, 2023, think about what someone who had wooden teeth might have thought about AR 15s is an absurdity. But our Supreme Court is so far right, so fascistic, [00:15:03] that they're not even trying to base their new gun interpretations, their new Second Amendment interpretations off of that. Now they're saying it has to be based in history. They said you can't have a gun regulation that isn't based in a piece of [00:15:19] American history. Pre Civil War justice Clarence Thomas, people that's our Supreme Court, which just goes to show how little they care about protecting people. How many pieces of legislation does everybody think there were to protect women against gun violence, pre Civil War? [00:15:36] Very few, if any at all. So now in order to make an argument to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, you have to find a piece of similar legislation from the early 18 hundreds to prove that it is based in history. [00:15:54] This is a legal theory completely concocted out of nowhere, mind you, and it's going to massively impact our ability to regulate public safety in this country, it's already gone into effect in that way. States and the NRA are already lobbying to repeal laws that protect [00:16:10] women against gun violence from domestic abusers, that attempt to take guns away from people who have been found to have been, by a preponderance of evidence when it comes to restraining orders, guilty of domestic violence against a woman. [00:16:26] And the response is always ridiculous from right wingers, is that we just need to arm the women, then that's how we protect the women. Despite the fact that women are significantly more likely to die by their domestic abusers if that person has a gun, it's the number one indicator that [00:16:41] someone will die, will be murdered by their domestic abuser. But now we have to look back through history and find an example. Pre 18 hundreds, I mean, it's fiction, it's a fictional legal theory. And it's something that they're gonna now continue to use to prevent any legislation [00:16:59] that's gonna come in the wake of this mass shooting to try to protect children and innocent people just trying to enjoy their Wednesday afternoon from mass violence. And the Republicans will say, we don't talk about politics in the wake of a mass shooting, but just pay attention. [00:17:16] They don't talk about liberal politics, but they are 100% signaling to the NRA and their conservative base that we're gonna fight to ensure that you don't have your guns taken away. I'll let you get the last word in on this. >> Speaker 5: If Clarence Thomas, his lack of self awareness is mind boggling. If his standard is, you need pre Civil War laws, [00:17:33] I'm not sure if he's aware of the fact that he wouldn't be on the Supreme Court if this was pre Civil War America. He would likely be a slave. And so, I mean, open your eyes, man. You're now living in a country that's so free, you get to be on the highest [00:17:49] court in the land and be super corrupt in that position. You have that right now, wake up.