It's Friday, October 27th, 2023, from Peachfish Productions.

It's the gist I'm Mike Pasca.

Horrible murders in Maine, 18 dead, two locations.

The shooter, as of my speaking into this microphone, is still not captured.

Though I don't always talk about every mass murder in America because they are so common,

and because if I can't bring a new perspective, I tend to leave the coverage to others.

How did he get the gun?

Did the authorities miss anything?

The necessary work of hearing the victims, stories, all important, all credibly brought to

you by other outlets.

Also, I try to say something new, and I always try to say something true.

And the true thing is very much not the new thing with these stories.

I mean, in general, and in this case too, these are the choices we've made.

These are the inevitable, and I would say, horribly logical, consequences of policies

that we, as citizens, either endorse or just don't have the political will to undo.

But actually, if you look at Maine, the state of Maine, things are a little different

there.

Maine is the safest state in America in terms of violent crime, issues of guns and

homicide play a little bit differently there than they do almost everywhere else.

The state of Maine has 20-something murders in most years.

Before the pandemic, it experienced 19 homicides in 2017, 19 homicides in 2016.

That will be the same number if one of the victims currently in the hospital from this

...