Wk of 10.9.17

This article used several studies to reference the motives behind the various mass shootings that have taken place in America over the recent years. Contrary to my initial thoughts about the convicted murderers, the article actually states that the majority of these killers are not sufferers of "mental illness." This depends on how you define mental illness., because anyone that commits such a crime., regardless of definition., is in fact mentally ill in every sense of the word. However, looking at the common factors that these people share, including social isolation, and negative perceptions of those people around them, I think the article makes a good point in that these people tend to magnify those times in which they were wronged, and never blame themselves. The stat at the end is pertinent in that those that purchase firearms with some type of criminal history are more likely to commit further acts of violence. Good read 👍🏾

Great article! As seen in the article, gun violence or even violence in general is much less likely to boil down to mental illness. While screening of mental illness might pick out the few of those that are more prone to mass violence; it is not the best solution to this problem. The solution this to problem lies within gun control. The common denominator between all of these mass violence instances was guns. The solution to this problem thus lies in better control of firearms. This is not a far fetched idea. Many nations have proven this point by regulating what types of firearms that public as access to (Australia, Switzerland, Great Britain). The results of these gun control measures have drastically limited the mass casualty incidences in these countries; and has been proven to hold for decades.

What the crux of the article is trying to get at is that mass killings (specifically mass shootings) are usually not linked to mental illness, and I would tend to agree with this statement. Intuitively, it actually makes quite a bit of sense. As demonstrated in the Las Vegas shooting, mass shootings require extensive, deliberate, thoughtful, and logical planning – from the acquiring of multiple automatic weapons as to avoid the need to reload, to choosing a strategic vantage point, to remaining inconspicuous among the community, etc. This combination of planning and executing a well-thought out plan, along with remaining unsuspected by social peers, would likely be much more difficult to successfully pull off by someone with a mental illness, such as schizophrenia. Also, instances where those with mental illnesses commit murders seem to trend more on the side of single murders rather than mass murders, at least from the stories I’ve read. Take the example of the schizophrenic Canadian man who beheaded a stranger on a Greyhound bus back in 2008. This man heard voices in his head telling him to perform this random beheading on the spot, rather than executing a carefully elaborated plan to murder everyone on the bus, such as planting a bomb. Additionally, in this particular case, “Canadian authorities don’t view him as a significant threat to the public,” (https://www.rt.com/news/377065-canada-murderer-schizophrenic-freed/) which is also supported by the Atlantic article, which claims that the connection between mental illness and mass shootings is weak. Just because something is so incomprehensible to the majority of us (e.g. massacring a large group of people), we can’t automatically attribute this to the scapegoat of mental illness. But of course like everything else, there are always exceptions. There are those with mental illness that can in fact commit and have the potential to commit mass killings. It would be ignorant to completely dismiss the importance of providing mental health services to such people. The tricky part is finding the balance where we are able to help the greatest amount of people without over-expending our available resources. When it really comes down to it though, I believe the problem of mass shootings really boils down to gun control. As someone not from America, it’s extremely difficult for me to comprehend the country’s obsession with guns – love of guns seems to surpass freedom of speech, proper health care, a functional economy, etc. for a lot of people here. Maybe it’s just engrained into American culture and is too late to change at this point? But that’s a debate for another time.

This article states that the connection between mental illness and mass shootings is weak because little violence is caused by mentally ill people. It states that violence would go down by only 4% if we were able to cure mental illnesses such as MDD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. There also seem to be many other reviews published stating that a person who has addiction, alcohol use disorder, or history of childhood abuse, and who is of the male sex all are more likely to commit serious crimes of violence. I feel that regardless and effort should be made to cure mental illness and even if the percentage of people with mental illness that cause these tragedies in society is low it would be beneficial. A life is a life regardless. I also feel that perhaps another criteria of mental illness should be examined because the article seems to only care about labeling the assailants with mental illness with a psychotic disorder, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. Personally, I do not think that mass shootings and killings are performed by people in a healthy mental state and although they may not have the features necessary to label them with a mental illness, another category may exist in the future. It also seems like there is varying and unreliable data on the correlation between mental illness and mass killings. As a society we tend to stigmatize those with mental illness making it less likely for them to get help and thus prevent crimes that occur due to uncontrolled mental health. We should work towards ending this image and perception because people with these problems deserve just as much care and empathy as those with any other medical condition.

It's interesting to see that the percentages of mass shootings associated with mental illness are far lower than I expected, considering how the media uses mental health as the excuse. I have to disagree about better mental health care won't stop mass shootings. Getting mental health care will help people deal with their frustrations and prevent horrible events, I believe. The problem, like the article states, is that people don't seek the help they need when life gets overwhelming and the idea of blaming the world and seeking revenge begins. They don't seek help because they believe their thinking is justifiable and because of the unfortunate stigma that exists regarding mental health. The article implies that mass shootings are done by mentally stable people, which I disagree with. If shooters don't have the logic to even question the idea of a mass shooting than I certainly believe that they are mentally unstable. Just entertaining the idea of it is generally considered to be homicidal ideation and if they sought help for their problems in the first place, they'd be involuntarily hospitalized. There needs to be a way to decrease the stigma of mental health and encourage more to seek help for their mentality. I personally think a thorough background check and an extensive psychiatric evaluation should be performed before anyone can purchase firearms, as well as bimonthly check-ups to ensure mental health is sound. The statistics may show that a small percentage of people who have mood disorders, schizophrenic etc. commit these sort of heinous crimes, BUT to state that those who commit these crimes are mentally sound is also wrong because no sound person would commit these crimes. This was a very interesting and eye-opening article.

Interesting article but it seems to me that the author was trying to minimize the effects that mental illnesses have in gun violence. ALL of the studies mentioned in this article tend to downplay the role of mental illness in mass shootings. The author should have mentioned studies that link mental illness to mass shootings so that the reader would have an unbiased and a more balanced set of information before making a decision on how they feel about the issue. But regardless of the percentage of gun violence and mass shootings that could be attributed to mental illness (even if it's a small percentage of them) it is important that we have gun law reforms that would target mental ill patients, especially those who are prone to violence. Mental illness is only part of the puzzle though. It would take more than that to reduce the amount of gun deaths in this country. But it is important not to decrease the value of mental health vis-a-vis mass shootings. We have to understand that keeping a gun away from a mentally ill person is not only protecting the public from that person, but is also protecting that person from him/herself. It is not a stigmatization issue, it's a matter of life or death.

After a shooting, when things have settled down and the initial panic/shock have subsided, our minds begin to look for explanations as to what may have caused such a tragedy. Unfortunately, a common explanation as to why a tragedy occurs involves the offender being mentally unstable. It is very important to understand that mental illness does not play a huge role in gun violence in the U.S. A large number of people with mental illness are not violent and only a small percent of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar or depression partake in violent behaviors. Even though mental illnesses are partially attributed to high profile shootings, mental illness alone is not a risk factor for violence. Our society speculates upon a killer’s mental status, even when there isn’t any evidence that they are living with such a disorder. Majority of the times in the news, we read or hear that investigators are unsure if the perpetrator had a history of mental illness. It has become very evident that mental illness is becoming extremely linked to gun violence in our society that people find it necessary for mental illness when it is not there.  Shootings surprisingly tend to cause people to think about getting better mental health screenings for having guns or in general. Although this would be a good thing, better care towards mental health is technically not enough to prevent violence.