The mental health versus gun control debate
This is an excellent panel show from AlJazeera that looks at how the current debate is affecting people with psychiatric illnesses. I hope some will watch it and see how this is happening. There is video at the link.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/2012/12/2012121972717242949.html
In the wake of the Newtown shooting, is the discourse on gun control being sidelined by a focus on mental healthcare?
Inside Story Americas Last Modified: 19 Dec 2012 09:21
The search is on for answers relating to the mass killings at Sandy Hook elementary school, but is the speculation about the mental health of the killer helpful or merely adding to the stigmatisation of the mentally ill while doing little to address the root causes of such violence?
"There is something of a tendency in the aftermath for people to be searching for ways to try and push the identity of the killer off on some other group. When the killer belongs to a racial or religious minority that's a fairly simple or despicable enterprise. When the mass shooter belong[s] to the dominant culture - a white male - the tendency is to try and diagnose him something and that involves the facts being entirely ignored."
Amid the debate about stricter gun control following the mass killings in Newtown, another issue has surfaced - that of mental illness.
Despite the absence of an official diagnosis, media speculation about Adam Lanza's mental health has centered on suggestions he was Autistic.
more at link, including video