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PORTLAND, Maine

Thomas McLaughlin pens “Maine Compass” piece about high-powered firearms

Thomas McLaughlin

SWAGƵ professor in the School of Social Work Thomas McLaughlin, M.S.W., Ph.D., wrote an article published in the Maine Sunday Telegram that examined mass shootings in the wake of the country’s deadliest mass shooting in Las Vegas, where a man killed 59 people and injured more than 500.

The article, titled, “More lethal firearms the one link between shooters,” pointed out that while there are many differences in the people who commit these acts of violence, the one common denominator between them is increasingly sophisticated firearms.

“There is a clear correlation between the increased number of casualties and the increase in lethality of the firearm,” McLaughlin wrote. “Banning all of these weapons will lower the number of casualties and, more importantly, the frequency of mass shooting events. This approach has been effective in most of our fellow high-income countries in the world, many of which have a culture of respect for firearms and their historical importance, just as we do.”

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