(CNN) In emotional testimony Thursday morning, family members of Robert Card, the man responsible for two shootings that left 18 people dead in Lewiston, Maine,<a class="excerpt-read-more" href="https://whdh.com/news/family-of-lewiston-maine-shooter-testifies-about-struggle-to-get-him-help-before-the-tragedy/">Read More</a>
Members of Robert Card's family broke their public silence Thursday to make emotional pleas for improvements to the Army, law enforcement and mental health systems that they say failed to help them in the months before he committed the state's deadliest mass shooting.
Shortcomings in mental health treatment, weak laws and a reluctance to threaten personal liberties can derail even concerted attempts to thwart mass shootings.
Robert Card displayed a textbook set of warning signs: He was hearing voices. He told people that he was planning violence. And his behavior had markedly changed in the months leading up to the mass shooting he carried out last week. His family, his superiors in the military and local police knew all of this. Yet no one stopped him. His killing of 18 people with a semi-automatic rifle in Lewiston, Maine, points to how shortcomings in the mental health system, weak laws and a reluctance to threat