The Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting was the first test of Biden's new gun violence prevention office

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.courthousenews.com/the-lewiston-maine-mass-shooting-was-the-
first-test-of-bidens-new-gun-violence-prevention-office/

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first thing Greg Jackson did when he arrived in
Lewiston, Maine, was to drive through the city, into its neighborhoods,
past the crime scene tape and the boarded-up windows, to get a feel for a
community reeling from a mass shooting. The deputy director of the new
White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention was looking for his starting
point.

He set to work figuring out what grief and trauma resources were available
for families of the victims and where the city could use assistance. He
got a briefing from law enforcement. He met with the governor. And he
started doling out help.

“Most governors and even city leaders see the federal government as a big
machine — there's so many different levers and processes and contacts,"
Jackson said in an interview. “So me just being a navigator and being able
to help cut through some of the government jargon or get the proper
contact within 15 minutes versus two days was huge.”

The Oct. 25 shootings at a bowling alley and nearby bar were the first
test of the administration's new office, set up in part to better
coordinate federal help for a community dealing with the aftermath of gun
violence.

“We see this as a critical way to prevent future violence and disrupt the
cycle of violence," Jackson said. “The first way we can prevent violence
is to better serve those who have been directly impacted by violence.”

It's something survivors and advocates have wanted for years. Gun violence
continues to plague the nation despite the passage of gun safety
legislation last year and a focus by President Joe Biden on ending gun
violence.

The issue also figures heavily into Biden's 2024 reelection campaign,
which hopes to reach younger voters who are deeply concerned about gun
violence. The president has also pushed for a ban on assault weapons.

“This is about common sense,” Biden said last week during a trip to
Lewiston. “Reasonable, responsible measures to protect our children, our
families, our communities. Because regardless of our politics, this is
about protecting our freedom to go to a bowling alley, a restaurant, a
school, church, without being shot and killed.”

Biden has called gun violence “the ultimate superstorm,” affecting not
just victims but the everyday lives of community members. His
administration believes the response should better resemble how the
government acts after natural disasters.

As of Wednesday, there had been at least 37 mass killings in the United
States in 2023, leaving at least 195 people dead, not including shooters
who died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and
USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

But the White House office isn't intended to help manage only the
aftermath of mass killings.

Some 21% of U.S. adults have reported a personal tie to gun violence, such
as being threatened by a gun or being a victim of a shooting, according to
a 2022 poll by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
and The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Jackson, like many others working in gun violence prevention, has
firsthand experience. He was shot about 10 years ago walking down the
street in Washington His 19-year-old cousin was shot and killed about a
decade earlier. He was on the ground in Buffalo, New York, as a volunteer
last year helping manage the fallout after a white supremacist killed 10
Black people at a supermarket.

“I’ve watched a community suffer alone, and how devastating that can be,"
he said.

Until now, Jackson said, the only unified response coming from the federal
government was via law enforcement. That was helpful, but it did not
address businesses losing money because they had to close as police
investigated nearby or schools that reopened without enough trauma
therapists for students.

“There was a crime response,” he said. “But when you look beyond the law
enforcement response, those levers were never pulled in a systematic way
until this office was created.”

In Lewiston, late last month, eight people died at a bar, seven more at
the nearby bowling alley and three others at hospitals. An additional 13
people were injured in the shootings. Gunman Robert Card, a 40-year-old
firearms instructor, was later found dead of an apparent self-inflicted
gunshot wound.

The White House office was established roughly five weeks before the
shooting. In that time, Jackson had already set up contacts at the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, the FBI's victim assistance
center, the Small Business Administration and other federal organizations.
On the ground in Maine, he served as the primary federal contact, so local
officials didn't have to wade through a sea of federal agencies.

The office helped facilitate burial costs. It helped set up a “family and
victim assistance center” at the local armory, a one-stop shop where
people could come who were impacted by violence. Lewiston has a large deaf
community, so sign language interpreters were stationed at the armory.

The White House offered Maine assistance in the immediate aftermath of the
shooting, said Ben Goodman, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Janet
Mills.

“There is no question that these last few weeks have been difficult for
everyone, but the governor is deeply grateful to the Biden administration
for their unwavering support of Lewiston and Maine,” Goodman said.

The White House office has three main goals: better coordinate the federal
response on the ground; fully implement gun safety legislation enacted in
2022 after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two
teachers were killed; look for ways to do more, whether through executive
action, state steps or federal legislation.

"The president's directive was really clear, to squeeze every benefit we
possibly can out of this," said Stefanie Feldman, a longtime policy
adviser to Biden who is now leading the office.

The gun safety measure that Biden signed into law required enhanced
background checks in all 50 states. But some states have privacy laws that
prohibit the submission of information to the background check system,
making the enhanced check significantly less useful. Feldman's office has
been working with state legislators and governor's offices to make them
aware of this issue and address it.

“A lot of that is behind the scenes,” she said.


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Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
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President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.