Copyright centralmaine
Laurel Swanson of Farmington is a medical student working in western Maine. I graduated high school in the 2010s, which means that my time in high school was shaped by a pervasive fear that someone would walk into my classroom with an intent to kill. Sitting in class, I often thought of what I could do to protect my peers if that did happen. It wasn’t my responsibility, but I still contemplated how I would act, if there would be anything I could do to save someone. We all had thoughts like this, or at least, all of us who grew up at a time when mass shootings have become so commonplace that they only stay on the news for a day or two before drifting into the dark recesses of memory; just another statistic. I chose to go into medicine because I wanted to help people. Even in high school, I contemplated how I would act to protect the students around me. Now, as I have begun my first few years of medical training, I am seeing another side of awareness around these mass casualty events. Recently, my class participated in an exercise to understand the responsibilities we may take on during mass casualty events in our future careers as physicians. We talked about resource allocation, about saving as many people as possible, even if it meant leaving some behind. This was the hardest part for me, knowing that they could have been saved if things had been different. Throughout that exercise I felt a pit in my stomach that grew with every memory of shootings that were cataloged as deaths that could have been prevented, yet so little was done to save the next victim. Through this I remember Lewiston, a tragedy that turned fear into reality for many of us in Maine, and I cannot help but to think that standing “Lewiston strong” is not enough. Much played into the events leading up to the events in Lewiston on Oct. 25, 2023. We all read about them. Suddenly every Mainer was an expert on mental health, and how quickly a situation can devolve into tragedy when it is not recognized for the crisis it is. So I ask, how can we prevent impulsivity in moments of crisis from turning deadly, or more aptly phrased, what can we do to save as many people as possible? As we learned from Lewiston, we need a way to take guns out of the hands of people who will cause these tragedies. At the same time, we’re Mainers. We hunt, we have guns to protect ourselves, some of us live off the land and rely on guns to make ends meet. I believe a first step in our solution lies in Extreme Risk Protection Orders, which empower family members to get help when a loved one is in crisis and may pose a threat to themselves or others. These laws have been used effectively in 21 other states to disarm people who have threatened mass violence, and have been proven to reduce suicide. As a Mainer, I think that the Extreme Risk Prevention Order is a good first step in keeping our communities safe and holding our values strong. Action needs to be taken to protect the people of Maine from another tragedy like the Lewiston shooting. I urge you to vote “Yes” on Question 2, and keep us Maine strong.
