Mass Shootings Caused from Mental Illness ?

It doesn't take long for the people of the United states to form a conclusion after a mass shooting that the shooter was mentally ill. Mental illness is not to blame, policy makers and journalist try to divert the nation from alternative factors, such as the easy access to high caliber rifles. On Sunday, Nov 5 in Sutherland Springs, Texas Devin P Kelley strolled into a baptist church opened fire killing 10 women, seven men, eight children, and one unborn child. 20 others were wounded during the shooting,Devin Keller horrific attack lasted over 7 minutes. The New york Times called it "the worst mass shootings in Texas history." Informed of the situation President Trump said he believes that this atrocity was caused by "mental health problem" and not an issue with the gun laws. 

 President Trump is blaming mass shootings on an entire community of mentally ill. Trump blames the mentally ill because he doesn't want to discuss gun laws and what can be done to reform these laws.Trump and the other Republicans cry out "mental health problem" and "mental illness" but make no attempts to expand mental health services. Instead Republicans are dismantling the Affordable Care Act(ACA), the only universal health care bill America has, on-top of that they fail to come up with better legislation to substitute the ACA. 

Physician Matthew Hirschtritt, and professor of psychiatry Renee Binder  co-authors in the Journal of the American Medical Association. These two pointed out that those with mental health issues were more likely to be the victim of violence instead of being the instigator, studies show in 2015 that Only 2 percent of those released from psychiatric care committed gun violence. Binder says to APA Psychiatric news “Most people with mental illness will never commit a mass shooting, and this rhetoric leads to increased shame, societal reduction, stigmatization, and problems in gaining stable employment and housing.” Mental illness is not the cause for mass shootings.

 Nowadays anyone can go out buy a military grade weapon,shoot up a place of their choosing and claim that they were mentally ill. Its unfair for those who actually suffer from mental illness such anxiety,schizophrenia, depression and many others. Those who do suffer from mental illness should stay away from any type of firearm and our government and gun shop owners need to make a greater effort in obtaining background checks. So that those who are mentally ill don't hurt themselves or other people. In all if guns were harder to obtain mass shootings could be prevented.

Picture: “Mental Health - A Haiku Deck by Rachel Breunig.” Haiku Deck: Presentation Software and Online Presentation Tools, www.haikudeck.com/mental-health-uncategorized-presentation-bef568d49b#slide3.

Comments

  1. Julie Quinn TACApril 7, 2018 at 12:16 PM

    I'm sure someone has done this already, but I'd be interested in exploring all of President Trump's tweets about the mass shootings and keep track of how many times he uses "mental illness" as a diagnosis/excuse when the shooter happens to be white. But then again, it's not just him, there is a whole segment of the population (including some in the media) who do this, too. And you're right--no matter a diagnosis or not, it would seem that there would be many fewer mass shootings if there was less access to these high-capacity magazines and related guns.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 10, 2018 at 2:55 AM

    Great post overall. I do believe that not only the media, but also our government are doing their best in deflecting the issue with gun violence in America. You’re post has a nice flow to it and reads well. The hyperlinks are nicely used, which helped in diving deeper into the post.

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