Schools, Businesses Closed As Manhunt Drags On After Mass Shooting In Maine

Several schools, government buildings, and universities in Maine have been closed as the police continue their search for the accused in the deadly shooting that occurred in Lewiston on Wednesday evening.

Public schools in Portland and in the towns of Gray and New Gloucester have been closed. All municipal buildings and programs have also been ordered to remain closed.

Daycare centres, recreational facilities, and municipal buildings in other towns and cities, including Augusta, Portland, Vassalboro, and Wells, have also been closed.

The latest mass shooting left 22 dead and several others injured. The incident took place on Wednesday after a man opened fire at a restaurant and bowling alley in the city of Lewiston, Maine. According to local media reports, the death toll is between 16 and 22; however, the officials have declined to give exact figures.

The gunman, identified as 40-year-old Robert Card, was a firearms instructor in the US Army Reserve in Saco. A massive manhunt is underway to nab the accused. Hundreds of police personnel have been deployed to search Lewiston and surrounding areas of Maine.

The police identified Card as a person of interest a few hours after the shooting and posted a picture of him on Facebook, asking people to stay cautious. They warnined that he should be "considered armed and dangerous".

Card had been reported to police in the past for domestic violence and other crimes. In fact, one of his ex-wives even got a restraining order against him. He was committed to a mental health facility for two weeks last month after reporting hallucinations..

"We have literally hundreds of police officers working around the state of Maine to investigate this case to locate Mr. Card, who is a person of interest," Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck told the media.

Lewiston is essentially under lockdown as the police try to catch the suspect. The local authorities have asked businesses to stay closed and people to stay home.

Officers from local, state, and federal agencies have all been roped in to comb vast areas of Maine. Helicopters could also be seen circling several areas.

The police also searched properties belonging to Card's family in Lewiston, but the suspect still remains at large.

The big picture:

The latest mass shooting incident is being dubbed one of the deadliest since 2016 when a gunman opened fire at a music festival in Las Vegas, killing some 60 people.

The US has recorded more than 500 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a non-governmental organisation. Mass shootings are defined as incidents wherein at least four people are injured or killed, excluding the shooter. There has been a significant rise in mass shootings since 2015.

In the United States, firearms are involved in approximately 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

Lax gun laws and a constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favoured by most Americans.

Three-quarters of all homicides in the US are committed with guns, and the number of pistols, revolvers, and other firearms sold continues to rise. According to a Pew survey conducted in June 2021, 30 per cent of American adults said they owned at least one gun.

A survey conducted by a Swiss-based research project found that there were about 120.5 firearms per 100 residents in the US in 2018. This essentially implies that there are more guns than people in the United States.