In Maine, the manhunt continues for the suspect in Wednesday night’s shooting rampage that killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city. Residents have been instructed to continue sheltering in place, while many schools remain closed today, including schools like Bates and the Portland public school system. The suspect, 40-year-old Robert Card, is a white Army reservist and firearms trainer who was hospitalized in a mental health facility over the summer after he threatened to “shoot up” a National Guard base in New York. Investigators are reportedly looking into whether the shooter was targeting his partner or former partner. Maine does not require permits to carry guns, does not require background checks and has no red flag laws.

On social media, one of Maine’s most prominent residents, the author Stephen King, wrote, “It’s the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder.” And on Thursday, Maine Democratic Congressmember Jared Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who lives in Lewiston, said the massacre had changed his views on gun control.

Rep. Jared Golden: “I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my home town of Lewiston, Maine.”

In another mass shooting, police on Thursday found five people fatally shot in Clinton, North Carolina. A suspect and motive have not yet been identified. There have been close to 600 mass shootings in the United States this year alone.