I’m angry. Actively angry. Frustrated. Not just at the fact that 18 innocent lives were lost and more permanently scarred in Maine last week, but at yet another failure – series of failures – of authorities who could have prevented it.

I’ve written about this before. And I have no doubt I’ll be writing about it again, because nobody’s interested in addressing these failures…

Police knew weeks ago that the shooter – a well-trained military firearms instructor, no less – was threatening harm. His military commanders knew he was having mental health issues, paranoid fantasies, hearing voices. But nothing was done, and on the evening of October 25, he shot up a Maine bowling alley and bar, killing 18 and wounding 13 more.

And so, of course, it’s the gun’s fault.

Nobody’s interested in the truth. Nobody’s interested in putting the blame where it belongs: on the shooter himself, and the people who knew he was a threat and did nothing to stop him.

Parkland, Florida, 2018 – the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings – all the state social workers and law enforcement (up to and including the FBI) ignored years of red flags that could have prevented that sick kid from getting his gun. 17 kids and teachers died in a preventable tragedy. Their blood is on the hands of every official who ignored the signs.

Here we are, five years later, in Lewiston, Maine. The blood of all 18 who lost their lives is on the hands of the people who could have prevented it but did nothing.

Nothing will be done about it. It’s the gun’s fault.