Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning ended his Saturday press conference by talking about gun control in light of the shootings allegedly carried out by Robert Card in Maine.
Lanning said his comments were not intended to be “political in any way,” and he said, “This isn’t me taking a stance, but our players told me this spring that gun violence was really important to them, and I just want to ask everybody, what are we doing about it?”
Watch the video and the message from Oregon head coach @CoachDanLanning https://t.co/kyV5hw21Co pic.twitter.com/y9r2OSlvs7
— Matt Prehm (@MattPrehm) October 29, 2023
He added, “Don’t think I’m sitting here talking about gun control. Don’t think I’m not talking about mental health. I’m talking about all of it.”
Lanning said, “Where can we support the people that are having problems with mental health in this country. Where can we support making sure that people who shouldn’t have weapons don’t have weapons.”
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Breitbart News reported that Robert Card, the Maine shooting suspect, used a .308 sniper rifle that was “legally” purchased. When law enforcement speaks of “legally” purchasing a gun the reference normally indicates that a background check was passed.
On Saturday, the day after Card’s body was found in a semi-truck trailer, Maine Commissioner of Public Safety Mike Sauschuck indicated Card was never involuntarily committed for mental health issues and was therefore not barred from passing a firearm background check.
He elaborated, as it was common knowledge that Card was taken to a West Point hospital for an evaluation in mid-July 2023, noting that an evaluation is not a disqualifying factor for gun purchases and is not the same thing as being involuntarily committed. Being involuntarily committed disqualifies an individual from gun purchases.
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Sauschuck explained, “You can volunteer for treatment for months on end, but if you’re not forcibly committed to seek that treatment — and it’s very specific to treatment,” then it does not qualify as being involuntarily committed.
He added, “In this scenario, I have not seen to this point that Mr. Card was forcibly committed for treatment. And if that didn’t happen, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check, you go into a firearms dealer who does all their work, and the background check is not going to ping that this individual is prohibited.”
Sauchuck cautioned, “Just because there appears to be a mental health nexus to this scenario, the vast, vast, vast majority of people with a mental health diagnosis will never hurt anybody.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.