Sen. Johnson Urges Newsmax: Emphasize ‘Improved Approach to Mental Health in the US’

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Tuesday that the United States needs a “better approach to mental health” in the aftermath of the Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting that left 18 people dead last week.

“What we need is we need a better approach to mental health, and we also need to start taking a look at what kinds of drugs are being given to people in these kinds of situations,” Johnson said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The Chris Salcedo Show.” “Our entire drugged up culture [and] how that’s impacting mental health.”

Johnson was seemingly referring to reports that Maine shooting suspect, Robert Card, 40, had experienced a breakdown in mental health prior to the rampage.

Over the weekend, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said investigators determined the tragedy had “a mental health component,” citing evidence that Card suffered from paranoia and “felt like people were talking about him.”

A trained firearms instructor at the U.S. Army Reserve base in Saco, Maine, Card had reportedly threatened to shoot up the National Guard base and was “reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released.”

Asked if Americans should be armed and ready to protect themselves for the next mass shooting, Johnson said, “Well, from what I hear, Americans are becoming armed.”

“They’re buying guns, and they’re buying ammunition and, the fact of the matter is, what’s going to happen, now that this shooter is no longer with us – obviously, it sounds like he committed suicide – but you’re not going to hear much of this anymore because it doesn’t fit the narrative that the mainstream media wants to talk about,” he said.

“It’s not a white supremacist,” he continued. “It is an example of their gun control laws failing, completely failing, and so it’s just going to be swept under the rug like any other type of mass shooting that doesn’t fit the left-wing media that would indicate more gun control. Like we need more; we’ve got 10,000 gun control laws on the books. They obviously don’t work. We don’t need more.”

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