Not freaking again.

News last week that at least 18 people had been shot and killed in Lewiston, Maine, with 13 more injured, sparked angst, anger and prayers — again. But it now must lead to long overdue, sensible gun control, on both national and state levels.

For if any community thinks it is immune from gun violence, ask the people of Lewiston, now suffering deep losses. Or ask any community of previous U.S. mass shootings: Uvalde, Texas. Colorado Springs, Colo. Sandy Hook, Conn., to name just a few.

It is well past time for actions — several supported by most or a majority of Americans, polls show:

>> Requiring universal mandatory background checks for private and gun-show sales.

>> Enacting a national “red flag” law, allowing a court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves. Already, 21 states have red flag laws — and Hawaii, fortunately, passed its in 2020, creating a way to act before warning signs escalate into tragedies.

>> Banning sales of assault-type semiautomatic weapons. There is no reason why a military-style, high-volume combat killing device is needed in a civilian setting. In the wrong hands, at the wrong time of stress and duress, the damage and carnage quickly magnify. Needed on the battlefield perhaps, but certainly not in a family bowling alley or an elementary school.

>> Banning sales of high-capacity ammunition magazines. These, like the assault weapons, are designed for lethality and high-volume damage — which no one in their right mind should want in a bar-and-grill restaurant.

>> Increase mental health funding, which is needed, of course — but it should not be an excuse for not doing any, or all, of the above.

Robert Card, 40, a U.S. Army reservist and firearms- trained, eluded police for days after Wednesday night’s shootings in Lewiston; he was found dead Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. At least 18 people were killed and 13 injured after he sprayed bullets into a bowling alley, then a nearby bar-and-grill.

Multiple sources told CNN that Card’s rifle believed to have been used on his murderous rampage was a Ruger SFAR, chambered for high-powered .308 ammunition. The .308 round is larger and more powerful than ammunition carried in the rifles of soldiers and SWAT teams.

It’s believed that Card legally purchased the high-powered rifle and a Beretta 92-F 9mm semi-automatic pistol, CNN reported, just 10 days before his military superiors at Camp Smith in Cortlandt, N.Y., called police in mid-July because he was acting “belligerently and possibly intoxicated.” According to a state police bulletin, Card also threatened to “shoot up” a military base in Saco, Maine, and was hearing voices in his head.

He was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, and reportedly was hospitalized for two weeks this summer at a mental-health facility.

What’s yet unclear is why, despite the mental health episode, Card still had his assault rifle, instead of having it taken away. Maine has a “yellow flag” law, a watered- down version of red flag that does add procedural hurdles before police can request a judicial hearing to remove a person’s weapons.

Further, it’s not clear why the mental-health-facility commitment didn’t trigger a federal restriction against possessing guns.

Since the 1960s, federal law and most states have banned people from possessing guns if they have been formally committed to a mental health facility, said Lindsay Nichols, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s policy director.

But not everyone who stays at a facility is considered formally committed — a court process usually required to keep someone at a facility longer than about 14 days, she noted.

Amid all this, one hopeful sign: U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who lives in Lewiston, said he has changed his view on banning assault-style weapons.

Golden, arguably the most conservative Democrat in the U.S. House, said Thursday: “I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime. The time has 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.”

He must get others on board. This nation had a Federal Assault Weapons Ban from 1994 to 2003, but tragically, Congress failed to extend the law.

Golden’s change-of-mind on banning assault weapons is heartening in these heartsick times. Such changes, among others, must take hold in the policy-making halls of Congress — for the greater good of community safety.