Prelude: As a warning and for the reader’s knowledge this blog post is not driven by political or personal beliefs. This is to educate the public on current facts surrounding mental illness and gun violence. Is there a direct link?
I first came across this topic as the media continues to said that mental illness is a gateway to violence and mass shootings. I curiously started searching for statistics surrounding the subject. I personally thought to myself that maybe mental illness could increase violence. Then, I thought how I have struggled with mental illness; I thought about millions of people who suffer from mental illness and they do not kill people. Or do they?
Justine Coleman(2019) wrote a post for the Hill, an online news source. In her article she states that “Trump‘s administration is considering a proposal to study whether monitoring people with mental illnesses could prevent future violence, The Washington Post reported Monday”
Above we see a shot from a press conference by president Donald Trump. He is not the first administration to promise changes in mental health and gun laws. However, “According to Appelbaum,25 less than 3% to 5% of US crimes involve people with mental illness, and the percentages of crimes that involve guns are lower than the national average for persons not diagnosed with mental illness. Databases that track gun homicides, such as the National Center for Health Statistics, similarly show that fewer than 5% of the 120 000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness” (Metzl & Macleish 2015 pg.2)
If less than 10% of crimes are directly related to mental illness then why do we associate people with mental illness as being more violent? It could be possible that we see people as “crazy” because of their abnormal behavior. Schizophrenia is a perfect example as people diagnosed may have hallucinations. In fact “more than 70%…” (Hugdahl et. al. 2008 pg.1) hear voices.
Anderson Cooper, a reporter for CNN, covered a story regarding schizophrenia that captures auditory hallucinations (hearing voices). He accurately experiences and reports honestly on his experience and opens up to the public. That we should not discriminate and we should help these people. You’ll find the link to this video below.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2014/06/09/ac-dnt-schizophrenia-simulator.cnn
I wonder if the abnormal behavior we observe is what makes us assume they are violent. Therefore, we should educate the public including ours politicians and policy makers about what mental illness really is. Did you know that most severe mental illness leads people to isolate rather than go out? If a person is isolating themselves then how can they go out in public to hurt others?
If someone is so depressed that they cannot get out of bed how will they create a plan and execute a murder?
Factcheck.org was able to provide more information on the incorrect and improper link between mental illness and violence.
(this graph does not represent mental illness or gun violence it is just a visual to get you -the reader- thinking about pure true facts!)
Jessica Mcdonald (2019) said in her fact check article that “the National Council For Behavioral Health explained in its August 2019 report, “This means that if we could eliminate the elevated risk of violence that is attributable directly to having schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression, the overall rate of violence in society would go down by only 4 percent; 96 percent of violent events would still occur, because they are caused by factors other than mental illness.”
Mass murder and gun violence and prevalent in the united states and in the world as we know it. Mass shootings are actually extremely rare in occurrence even though it feels like they are always happening. We as an international community need to break down stigma associated with mental illness. If mental illness causes only 4 percent of violence then why does the media say they cause so much violence?
Mass shootings are what drives the medias viewership. And a recent study by the Secret Service found that “between 2000-2013 found 25% of suspects had been diagnosed with a mental illness, and 62% had a mental health “stressor…” (Jessica Mcdonald 2019)
I feel as though if we educate out children on mental wellness and having a healthy mental well-being we can change the violence in our society. For centuries humans have fought wars and maintain a violent nature. However, if we start small, whether in a state or in a country we must educate our children and our public on mental illness to eliminate the stigma behind it.
References
Hugdahl, K., Løberg, E.-M., Specht, K., Steen, V. M., van Wageningen, H., & Jørgensen, H. A. (2008, March 28). Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia: the role of cognitive, brain structural and genetic disturbances in the left temporal lobe. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2525988/
McDonald, J. (2019, October 19). The Facts on Mental Illness and Mass Shootings. Retrieved from https://www.factcheck.org/2019/10/the-facts-on-mental-illness-and-mass-shootings/
Metzl, J. M., & MacLeish, K. T. (2015, February). Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318286/