Joe Samaha News Today

Maine has become the second state, after Virginia, to adopt a Mass Violence Care Fund. It's a $5 million endowment designed to provide ongoing assistance to mass casualty victims, survivors and their families.

The $5 million for the fund will be invested by the state treasurer so that it can grow to support the future needs of the victims.

In approving the creation of the Maine Mass Violence Care Fund, the Legislature would demonstrate its unequivocal commitment to supporting the long-term health, well-being and longevity of Mainers whose lives have been shattered by the epidemic of mass gun violence.

A phone call woke Sarah Gayle Leonard from a nap on May 31, 2019. A friend had horrifying news: There was a mass shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, where Leonard’s mother — Mary Louise Gayle — had worked for more than two decades. Leonard immediately called her mom, but Gayle didn’t pick up. She frantically called again and again. Her mother never answered. Leonard said she ...

The fund would help survivors of mass violence, as well as the victims’ families, with long-term physical and mental health needs not covered by insurance.

“I think we are all here because we do care, because we want to do good will and I believe that we will," commission chairman Ryant Washington said.

Ryant Washington, the chair of a state commission investigating the 2019 mass shooting in Virginia Beach, hit back at recent criticism aimed at the panel at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

Kate Nixon is among those pushing state legislators to pass a $10 million budget amendment that would create the Virginia Mass Violence Care Fund.