The Maine and Tampa Shootings

By Ana Perez, 11th grade.

The United States has fallen victim to another mass shooting. This time, a mass shooting erupted in Lewiston, Maine and Tampa, Florida, leaving 20 dead, and even more injured. But this, sadly, is not new for the nation.

This past month of October, the United States fell victim to two mass shootings; one in Maine, and the other in Florida. These shootings left 20 dead and 23 injured, becoming yet another bullet point in the United States’ long list of mass shootings.

The Maine Shooting took place in Lewiston, Maine when forty-year-old Robert Card fatally shot eighteen people and wounded thirteen at a recreational bowling alley and at a local restaurant during a shooting spree. An intensive manhunt, the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released a photo of the suspect. Two days later, on October 27th, Card was found dead in a tractor trailer near a recycling center. The shooting became the tenth-deadliest in the United States and the deadliest in the state of Maine.

The Florida Shooting took place in Tampa, Florida took place on October 29th in the Ybor City, a popular tourist spot, when a fight broke out between two groups; a twenty-two-year-old suspect was arrested, while a fourteen-year-old suspect is still at large.

These shootings are just a larger symptom of the American mass shooting epidemic. Some say it’s a result of the proliferation of firearms in the United States, while some say it’s simply a consequence of the country’s declining mental health. But what is certain is that the United States government must take action in order to improve the situation; far too many innocent people fall victim to firearms daily, weekly, monthly, and annually.

References: