Scapegoating The Mentally Ill Is NOT The Solution

After the recent school shooting, this time at a community college in Oregon, the Republicans (at the behest of the NRA) is once again floating the same old tired excuses and "solutions". They are calling for more guns (on campuses and everywhere else -- and they are again demonizing the mentally ill.

More guns is just stupid -- considering we already have more than 300 million guns floating around in our society (nearly enough for every man, woman, and child in this country to have a gun). And while I do believe we need to give the mentally ill more help in this country, it will not solve our epidemic of gun violence. We (actually the Republicans) have cut far too much from programs to help the mentally ill, but the truth is that very little of the gun violence in the U.S. is done by those with mental problems. Most are not violent -- and in fact, are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators.

Consider the following article by Amy Wolf, writing for Vanderbilt University. She discusses research done by Jonathan Metzl (above left) and Kenneth MacLeish (above right) at Vanderbilt on this issue. Their article, "Mental Illness, Mass Shootings and the Politics of American Firearms", was published in the February edition of the American Journal of Public Health. Here is part of what Ms. Wolf writes:

Mentally ill not violent

In the article, “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings and the Politics of American Firearms,” Metzl and MacLeish analyze data and literature linking guns and mental illness over the past 40 years. They found that despite societal pre-conceived notions, most mentally ill people are not violent.

“Fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness,” they write.

Four myths arise after mass shootings

Their research uncovered four central myths that arise in the aftermath of mass shootings:

• Mental illness causes gun violence.
• Psychiatric diagnosis can predict gun crime before it happens.
• U.S. mass shootings “prove” that we should fear mentally ill loners.
• Because of the complex psychiatric histories of mass shooters, gun control “won’t prevent” mass shootings.

They stress that all four of these are incorrect, though understandable, assumptions.

“Our research finds that across the board, the mentally ill are 60 to 120 percent more likely than the average person to be the victims of violent crime rather than the perpetrators.”

Misdirected blame

Metzl and MacLeish find that the focus on mental illness after horrific, yet statistically rare, mass shootings misdirects people from the bigger issues tied to preventing gun deaths in the United States.

“There are 32,000 gun deaths in the United States on average every year, and people are far more likely to be shot by relatives, friends or acquaintances than they are by lone violent psychopaths,” Metzl said.

“We should set our attention and gun policies on the everyday shootings, not on the sensational shootings, because there we will get much more traction in preventing gun crime.”

Mental health screening can’t prevent gun crime

The presumed link between mental illness and gun violence has led to calls for mental health screening for gun owners. But the authors find that psychiatric diagnosis is in and of itself not predictive of violence.

“Even the overwhelming majority of psychiatric patients who fit the profile of recent U.S. mass shooters – gun-owning, angry, paranoid white men – do not commit crimes,” Metzl and MacLeish write.

“Basing gun crime-prevention efforts on the mental health histories of mass shooters risks building ‘common evidence’ from ‘uncommon things,’ all while giving mental health providers the untenable responsibility of preventing the next massacre.”

Signs to predict gun violence

The authors detail how focusing solely on mental illness ignores those factors that do predict gun violence more broadly:

• Drug and alcohol use
• History of violence
• Access to firearms
• Personal relationship stress

“People are far more likely to be shot by relatives, friends, enemies or acquaintances than they are by lone violent psychopaths,” according to Metzl and MacLeish’s research.