Donald Trump Jr points finger at FBI for Maine mass shooting

Donald Trump Jr has blamed the FBI for the spate of mass shootings in Maine in recent days.

The former president’s eldest son said the bureau could have apprehended the shooter if it spent less time investigating people he describes as “MAGA patriots”.

He failed to mention the US’ uniquely lax gun laws. It is the only nation in the world where civilian guns outnumber people.

Trump Jr posted on X/Twitter: “The Maine shooter was (as always) known to law enforcement, previously committed to a mental institution and prohibited from owning firearms.”

“If only the FBI would stop spying on Catholics, concerned parents at PTA meetings, and MAGA patriots, maybe they’d actually stop real terrorists for a change rather than trying to create them.”

Hundreds of police officers are engaged in a huge manhunt for the suspect, after 18 people were killed on Wednesday across two shootings at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston.

Authorities are looking for a 40-year-old man identified by authorities as Robert Card, who is a US Army reservist. He is thought to be armed and dangerous.

On Thursday night, police raided a property in Bowdoin, a neighbouring town.

Part of the episode played out live on TV as police carried out search warrants. Over a megaphone, an officer was heard yelling to come out of a house “with your hands up”.

However, they departed the scene a few hours later.

The shooting is the worst in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which counts incidents where four or more people are killed or injured.

It is also thought to be the worst in Maine, one of the least populous US states which has high levels of gun ownership but relatively low levels of violence.

The shooting prompted the area's representative in the US Congress, Marine Corps veteran Jared Golden, to publicly call for a ban on assault weapons.

Golden has previously refused to call for such a ban.

He said: “The time has come for me to take responsibility for this failure.

“Which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing”.

As for Trump Jr, his comments echo previous statements in which he attacked the FBI for targeting people who took part in the armed insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

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