Nikki Haley says Maine shooting is another example of US mental health ‘chaos’

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley claimed that the world is “on fire” in the wake of two shootings in Maine, citing the shooting as a further need for the United States to address mental health issues.

The shootings on Wednesday have left dozens of people injured and at least 16 people dead, according to police. Robert Card, 40, has been identified by the Lewiston Police Department as “a person of interest,” and the public has been warned that he “should be considered armed and dangerous.”

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“First of all, Sean, I’ll tell you, the world is on fire,” Haley told Hannity on Wednesday. “I mean, we see it with wars around the world, we see it in our schools, we see it with protests on college campuses, we’re seeing it here. But what does this come down to? We have got to start really getting focused and serious. That means we need serious law and order. That means that we need to defund sanctuary cities. But that means we need to acknowledge the cancer in America that is mental health.”

Haley, a former United Nations ambassador and former South Carolina governor, went on to state that 1 in 3 U.S. citizens suffer from mental health issues, and that there needs to be more investment in therapists and mental health centers. She also suggested having a mental health counselor “in every single school” as well as one on “every college campus.”

“And what I’ll tell you is we’re watching right now, 80% of our mass shootings are mental health-related,” Haley said. “So think about that, 70% of those shootings, the shooter is suicidal. We’ve got to start acknowledging what this all means. There’s a lot we can do. But we don’t need to pity ourselves. We need to say at what point are we going to stop the chaos.”

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Card, the suspected shooter, is a trained firearms instructor and “believed to be” in the Army Reserve stationed out of Saco, Maine. He served as a firearms instructor within his role in the Army Reserve, according to reports.

A state police bulletin said Card had recently reported hearing voices that told him to “shoot up” the National Guard base in Saco. A bulletin from the Maine Information and Analysis Center, a law enforcement database, reported that Card was committed to a mental health facility this past summer for two weeks before being released.