Outside a Maine bowling alley where a gunman opened fire last month, President Biden on Friday mourned "18 precious souls stolen" in the mass shooting. The attacks at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille in Lewiston on the same night were the deadliest of the year so far, Axios reports, and the worst in Maine's history. More than a dozen people were injured. "This tragedy opens a painful, painful wound all across the country," Biden said in a four-minute address. "Too many Americans have lost loved ones or survived the trauma of gun violence."
White House aides said the president was not going to call for specific gun-control measures on the visit, per the New York Times, but was calling for more general steps to end the violence. "This is about common sense," Biden said. "Reasonable, responsible measures to protect our children, our families, our communities." He and his wife, Jill, stood for a moment of silence and placed a bouquet of white flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the bar, per the AP. Biden then hugged the bar's owner, Kathy Lebel. He told the gathering that they were there "on behalf of the American people to make sure you know that you're not alone."
The Bidens were scheduled to meet with families of the victims, survivors of the attacks, first responders, nurses, and other residents. In his remarks, the president talked about the pain of survivors, "who will forever carry the memories and the physical and emotional scars of this," per CBS News, as well as the loss of friends and loved ones who had been enjoying a Wednesday night out. "Regardless of our politics," Biden said, "this is about protecting our freedom to go to a bowling alley, restaurant, school, church without being shot and killed." (More Maine mass shooting stories.)
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