Vice President Kamala Harris praised Australia’s sweeping gun ban Thursday while reacting to a mass shooting in Maine.

Authorities named Robert R. Card as a suspect in shootings at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, that left 18 people dead and 13 wounded. Harris and President Joe Biden released statements earlier Thursday calling for the renewal of a ban on certain semi-automatic firearms.

“Doug and I mourn for those who were killed. We pray for those who were injured, and grieve with so many whose lives are forever changed and impacted by what happened,” Harris said during remarks Thursday afternoon. “The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to provide full support to local authorities, and as we gather details, we must continue to speak truth about the moment we are in.”

“In our country today the leading cause of death of American children is gun violence,” Harris continued. “Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in this country. And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.”

Card is an Army reservist who served for 20 years and is a certified firearms instructor. He reported hearing voices after being fitted with new hearing aids, and spent two weeks in a mental institution, according to Newsweek.

Australia passed legislation that required owners of semi-automatic firearms and certain pump-action firearms to surrender them in a mandatory “buyback.”

Biden, congressional Democrats, media figures and celebrities demanded a ban on so-called “assault weapons” in the wake of mass shootings in a Nashville school, a back in Louisville and an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, earlier this year.

Harold Hutchison on October 26, 2023