In a letter to his constituents published Sunday to his “Dear Mainer” Substack, Democratic Congressman from Maine’s 2nd District Jared Golden explained his reasoning behind why he now supports banning “AR-15s or similar rifles” in the wake of last week’s mass murder in Lewiston.
At a press conference the evening after the shooting, Rep. Golden announced that he has reversed his previous position of opposing bans on assault rifles, saying that “the time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure.”
Golden stated that he will “work with any colleague” to get a ban of assault rifles passed in the time he has left in Congress.
The “Blue Dog” Democrat’s announcement was met with backlash from two of his Republican 2024 opponents in Maine’s 2nd District, who both accused Golden of using the horrific shooting to advance a political agenda.
[RELATED: Rep. Jared Golden’s Republican 2024 Opponents Slam His Reversal on Assault Weapons Ban…]
“Some people have accused me of trying to capitalize on this tragedy to push a liberal agenda,” Golden wrote in his Sunday letter. “I am almost jealous of their ignorance – I hope they don’t have to learn the hard way how wrong they are as I have learned about myself this past week.”
Golden, a U.S. Marine veteran, explains that although he has previously opposed calls to ban AR-15s and similar rifles, he now is “joining the call to ban their sale and restrict the possession of them.”
His account of how this reversal occurred, he says, began with the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I left our nation’s capital thinking, for the first time, that large-scale partisan violence might actually be possible in America,” Golden wrote, saying that following Jan. 6 he bought weapons to defend himself and his family in response to death threats.
The “right to self-defense,” Golden wrote, “is what I believe to be at the heart of the Second Amendment.”
Tempering that position, however, Golden believes that “our Constitution and our courts seek to find a balance between the individual right and the public’s right for security and the obligation of the government to provide it.”
After receiving the news of the shooting, Golden traveled to his hometown of Lewiston, taking time to reflect on what he would say during last Thursday’s press conference.
His reflections, he wrote, centered around how reasonable it is to expect a “good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun.”
“Can a good guy with a gun stop a bad guy with a gun? Yes they can,” Golden wrote. “But is it guaranteed to go that way? Absolutely not. Actually, it won’t without some serious good luck – right time, right place, right angle. Everything has to go right.”
The Democratic Congressman explains that he asked himself if he had been at one of the sites of last weeks shooting armed with his sidearm, would it have made a difference if the shooter was armed with a weapon different from the AR-15.
“The answer is yes, in a life or death game of milliseconds and distance, it does make a difference,” he wrote.
Aspects of the AR-15 rifle make it “near perfect for the rapid reacquisition of targets,” he explained, adding that “that’s why these killers keep using it to carry out these mass shootings.”
“Are guys like me going to have to start carrying AR-15s strapped over our shoulders like we strap handguns on our waists when we take the family out to eat, to buy groceries, go to the movies, drive them to school?” Golden asked.
Golden, despite now supporting a ban on assault rifles, wrote that he doesn’t think “making it harder for the average American to buy guns is the right answer.”
“I think it should remain fairly easy,” he wrote.
What Golden supports is to “remove these deadliest of rifles from the equation” — a measure he calls the “simplest solution.”
“We should ban the further sale of them and, at a minimum, we should regulate the ongoing possession of them with a permit and a regular review process in order to keep them,” he wrote.
In his letter, Golden did not mention the Lewiston shooter Robert Card’s history of mental health issues aside from saying he had “gone crazy,” or Maine’s “yellow flag” law, a law meant to remove guns from people deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others.
[RELATED: Maine Monster Dead: Reign of Terror Ends as Lewiston Mass Shooter Who Butchered 18 Found Dead…]
Card had previously threatened to shoot up a military base in Saco, and reportedly had the cops sent to his home by the Maine National guard over concerns he would “snap and commit a mass shooting” less than six weeks before last Wednesday’s massacre.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins said at last Thursday’s press conference in Lewiston that “the yellow flag law should have been triggered,” and that Card “should have been separated from his weapons.”
Maybe they should ban not acting upon a known threat.
I have noticed that in a lot of these mass shootings, the authorities said they knew about the person.
How about a ban on “Gun Free Zones” ? That would definitely save lives.
How about accountability for the incompetence which ignored an obvious threat to the community?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/30/us/police-maine-shooting-gunman.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20231030&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=97502781&segment_id=148730&user_id=87bd9e9d88d1d9c5c02ee9801feb7e96
Communist DemocRat Golden Follows the Party playbook by not letting a good crisis/tragedy go to waste. He deliberately ignores the fact that homicidal maniacs are crazy, not stupid. They don’t need guns to perpetrate mass murder. They have been known to use airplanes, trucks, poison, cookware, fertilizer, fire, knives, hammers, etc. to commit mass murders.
Depriving sane citizens of adequate defensive weapons will only make them easier prey for the maniacs and criminals.
The electorate of D2 will decide Mr. Golden’s political fate next year at the polls if he runs. I was upset with his use of a political message at the press conference so soon after this horrific event. There is a time and place for the discussion he proposes. His timing and the place was so inconsiderate to all those tragically affected.
Perhaps if he hadn’t allowed his idol biden (no cap) to let 10 million undocumented invaders into the country people might not feel the need to own one. Until you start jailing gun crimes with life sentences including possession of a gun by unauthorized person, no one will take you seriously.
I have read news reports that both of the shooting sites were gun-free zones banning entry for those with concealed weapons. Was the gunman aware of this? We don’t know. But one survivor of the massacre described Card as “methodical” and “at ease” during his shooting spree. One suspects he wouldn’t have lasted long and lives would have been saved had the establishment not been a gun-free zone and there were Mainers present with concealed weapons. There should be more discussion on this point. Do concealed weapons lower the risks of multiple deaths more than the outright ban of assault rifle bans?
Jared Golden is a weak, quivering, cynical political panderer. And he is completely disingenuous, having used images of himself in campaign ads holding guns, etc. to seduce conservative-minded voters. He is a disgrace, and I look forward to voting for whomever opposes him (again) in the next election.
Big pharma is also to blame for the shooting, as almost EVERY non-urban mass shooter has been hopped up on SSRIs / psychotropic meds. (And then there is the “voice of god” weapon and the FBI’s unsavory history of running domestic false flag terror ops….)
“Can a good guy with a gun stop a bad guy with a gun? Yes they can,” Golden wrote. “But is it guaranteed to go that way? Absolutely not. Actually, it won’t without some serious good luck – right time, right place, right angle. Everything has to go right.”
What an ignorant statement. His statement, when analyzed, backs up his warped view that ALL ESTABLISHMENTS SHOULD BE GUN-FREE ZONES. The only other weapon used attempting to stop the carnage that night was a kitchen knife used unsuccessfully by one of the managers before he got shot. Has Jared ever heard of a red dot optics on a pistol? What would have happened if more patrons were carrying concealed? We’ll never know, but that option sure beats a kitchen knife.
Also, notice how Jared never once mentioned mental health or Maine’s YELLOW FLAG LAW, that, if implemented might have prevented this? His laser-like focus was on a black rifle, an object most all libs know ABSOLUTLY NOTHING ABOUT.
Once again the system failed society, not the constitution. The problem in America is that democrat politicians don’t want to fix the mental health component in the argument regarding weapons, the more tragedies happen the louder the democrats scream for the abolition of 2nd amendment rights and once those rights are gone, your freedom will be as well.
“ … shall not be infringed.” It’s as simple as those four words.
So let’s review what we know… Card had previously threatened to shoot up a military base in Saco, and reportedly had the cops sent to his home by the Maine National guard over concerns he would “snap and commit a mass shooting” less than six weeks before last Wednesday’s massacre.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins said at last Thursday’s press conference in Lewiston that “the yellow flag law should have been triggered,” and that Card “should have been separated from his weapons.”
So let’s take the tools for protection from law abiding people leaving them defenseless against crazy people like card.
And totally ignore the PEOPLE WHO KNEW HE HAD MENTAL ISSUES AND DID NOTHING TO HELP HIM OR STOP HIM , INCLUDING FOLLOWING THE YELLOW FLAG LAW THAT THEY PASSED AND PUT IN PLACE AND TAKE HIS GUNS FROM HIM. SO WHO IS TO BLAME !!!???? WHY ARE THOSE PEOPLE NOT BRING HELD TO ACCOUNT, AT ALL !! ??
Bans, restricted access to specific weapons will never work in Maine. A criminal or mentally deranged people could care less about gun felonies when they are contemplating crimes. This guy demonstrated all of the classic signs of a big problem and no one took notice. I am sure the mental health professionals that treated him gave him drugs and sent him on his way. They should be examined and prosecuted if deemed at fault.
Golden is a lying hypocrite…and needs to be removed from office…Get out and vote…
Golden is a product of what Rank Choice Cheating gets you.
Golden is the fraud that got elected by rank choice voting which is illegal by the Maine Constitution, but demonrats got it passed when even California and Massachusetts won’t pass it because it’s wrong! Now Golden in all his splinny whining has stuck his finger in the air and no surprise he’s completely in lockstep with the rest of the extreme left in making sure the criminals have the upper hand! He said “Can a good guy with a gun stop a bad guy with a gun? Yes they can,” Golden wrote. “But is it guaranteed to go that way? Absolutely not. Actually, it won’t without some serious good luck – right time, right place, right angle. Everything has to go right.” That is the most ignorant excuse of all, so by his reasoning all the citizens should be defenseless because you might not have the right position! Here’s one for you Jared boy make gun free zones illegal those are where 99% of all mass shootings take place you putz! Golden has shown his yellow streak it’s time he’s replaced by a real American, we don’t need woke!!