Biden meets families in Maine after mass shooting

US President Joe Biden has visited Maine to meet community members personally affected by a mass shooting that left 18 people dead.

The attack at a bowling alley and bar in the town of Lewiston on 25 October also left 13 people injured.

Standing outside the bowling alley, Mr Biden repeated his calls for a ban on assault-style rifles.

But he could not pass such a sweeping measure even when his fellow Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.

“As we mourn today in Maine, this tragedy opens painful, painful wounds all across the country,” Mr Biden said.

He argued the attack should galvanise Congress into taking action to pass new gun laws.

“Regardless of our politics,” he said, “this is about protecting our freedom to go to a bowling alley, a restaurant, a school, a church without being shot and killed.”

The shooting, carried out by a 40-year-old US Army reservist, spawned a three-day manhunt.

The attack began at Just-In-Time Recreation, which hosts bowling leagues, before the gunman went to the nearby Schemengees Bar & Grille, where a cornhole tournament was under way.

A grandfather, a talented young bowler and four members of a deaf cornhole team were among the dead.

Sean Gosselin, a local resident, told the BBC that while the experience has been “difficult, the town is slowly returning to a sense of normalcy and coping as best it can”.

On Thursday, for example, Mr Gosselin said that many townspeople gathered to watch the local high school’s football team – the Lewiston Blue Devils – play their rivals from the nearby town of Auburn.

“It’s symbolic of resilience,” he said, “of persevering and moving on, but without a lack of recognition for victims of this horrible crime.”

The Lewiston shooting was the worst in the US so far this year and worst ever in Maine’s history.

The perpetrator, Robert Card, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound days after the murders.

Mr Biden has also called on Republican lawmakers to allow gun manufacturers to be held legally responsible for shootings.

On Friday, pro-gun activists on social media criticised the president’s latest plea for firearms control.

The Truth About Guns shared a post from a conservative commentator questioning why Mr Biden did not deliver his remarks in Chicago, a Democratic stronghold that has seen more than 2,000 shootings this year.

Officials in Maine have struggled to explain how the Lewiston gunman was able to legally obtain weapons despite warnings from his Army Reserve unit that he was facing mental health issues.

Maine’s Democratic Governor, Janet Mills, said she was thankful for Mr Biden’s “unwavering support” for the state in the aftermath of the shooting.