Mental illness and gun violence are barely related – it’s just a convenient scapegoat for cowards

As you know, it was a bloody week in America, with a massacre in El Paso and Dayton leaving 22 and 9 dead, respectably. It’s been another awful year in America when it comes to mass shootings – 255 in 217 days by August 5.

As can be anticipated at moments like these, Democrats and Republicans turned to their expected policy solutions to stop the bloodshed. Democrats argued for stronger gun control laws, including reinstating assault weapons bans and Emergency Protective Orders which could get the guns out of the hands of those who seek to use them to kill people or hurt themselves. Republicans tried to pivot to mental health and argue that the problem is just too dang complex to solve. In a speech after the shootings, President Trump said, “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun” (whatever that means).

Other Republicans echoed these comments. Ohio Senator Rob Portman said, “Look at the mental health crisis in our country today, there aren’t enough laws…” South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said:

Here’s the thing – the whole argument that this is a mental health problem, not a gun problem – is rank, stinking bullshit.

I’ll start by quoting those who make the argument far more eloquently than I ever could. In a blistering press release which gained national attention, Dr. Arthur Evans, CEO of the American Psychological Association, blasted the notion that perpetrators of mental illness were behind the spike in mass shootings. Said Dr. Evans:

Blaming mental illness for the gun violence in our country is simplistic and inaccurate and goes against the scientific evidence currently available.

“The United States is a global outlier when it comes to horrific headlines like the ones that consumed us all weekend. Although the United States makes up less than 5% of the world’s population, we are home to 31% of all mass shooters globally, according to a CNN analysis. This difference is not explained by the rate of mental illness in the U.S.

“The one stark difference? Access to guns…

As we psychological scientists have said repeatedly, the overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent. “

Evans went on to say that America desperately needs more gun control.

Former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also chimed in with a similar comment:

Indeed, experts have repeatedly blasted the notion that mental illness is tied to a rise in mass shootings. According to Adam Lankford, a University of Alabama criminologist who reviewed gun violence in 171 countries, access to guns is a far better predictor of gun violence than mental illness. The Secret Service has said, “Mental illness, alone, is not a risk factor” for predicting violence. The Washington Post notes that, in a 2018 analysis, 25% of active shooters had some sort of mental illness. A 2015 study on the same subject had that number at 22%.

This notion that it’s the mentally ill are the perpetrators of mass shootings is, generally speaking, unmitigated crap. Indeed, multiple studies have shown that the mentally ill are far more likely TO BE VICTIMS of violence, and gun violence – not the perpetrators of it. According to one study, the mentally ill are 3.6 times more likely to carry out an act of violence than the general population, but 23 times more likely to be that victim. The same study said that the vast majority of violent behavior occurs “due to factors other than mental illness.”

But hey, why let a good soundbite get in the way of avoiding a solution to a problem, right?

Oh. And one more thing. Republicans in Congress and at the state level have said that this is a mental health problem. So, naturally, they want to address it by increasing funding and access for people who suffer from mental illness, right?

Hahahaha.

President Trump and his Republican allies spent the first two years of his Presidency trying to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act, which has done a few little things for mental health care, you know, like improve access and reduce costs for people with mental illness…small stuff, I guess….

Let’s stop the bullshit: Trying to blame gun violence on the mentally ill is a convenient excuse for those who don’t want to actually deal with gun control. It’s not based in reality. And the rhetoric certainly isn’t matched up by the actions taken when it comes to improving mental health care.

Be smarter than they think you are. Don’t fall for this lie.