It's Time To Stop Blaming Mental Health For Mass Shootings

[SecularMotion]

A new academic review from the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy contradicts Fox News' conflation of violence and mental health, finding that the two are only related under narrow circumstances and that the vast majority of people with mental health conditions are not violent. The report calls for developing better "evidence-based criteria" for determining who is more likely to commit acts of violence and prohibiting them from owning guns.

The December 11 report is the work of mental health and gun violence researchers from top universities and research programs including the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. The report emphasizes a commitment to create evidence-based gun violence prevention policy recommendations that are informed by "the best available research" on gun violence and mental health.

While noting that it is important not to stigmatize those with mental health conditions, the Consortium's report recommends expanding the federal prohibition on gun ownership by individuals adjudicated as having a serious mental health condition to also include persons receiving involuntary outpatient treatment when a court has ruled the person is a danger to themselves or others.

The Consortium's approach, where the recommendation is based on academic research, stands in sharp contrast to Fox News' reporting. Indeed, Fox News' coverage of the relationship between gun violence and mental health has often failed to provide a nuanced picture of what is a complex issue, with the network unfairly stereotyping individuals with mental health conditions as prone to violence and using mental health to distract from the most significant factor in much of gun violence: access to firearms.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/11/its-time-to-stop-blaming-mental-health-for-mass/197226

[WinkyDink]

1. For me, I'll wait to read the medications report.

[B2G]

2. "the vast majority of people with mental health conditions are not violent"

But are the vast majority of those that commit this type of violence mentally ill?

[AtheistCrusader]

4. I think it's probably prima facie evidence of some sort of mental disturbance, for someone to walk

into a school and start shooting children.

That does not imply causation.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. It is very important not to stigmatize.

Studies have clearly shown, people with mental health issues of all sorts are more likely to be a victim of violence, than the general population, and not more likely to be a perpetrator of violence.

One meme the far right likes to employ, is a fake CAUSATION between the use of various prescription drugs meant to help various issues, as if the drugs CAUSED the outburst in the most devastating attacks, in which such drugs were taken by the perpetrator.

More likely, is that the drugs FAILED to address the underlying issue, not caused it.

We do need to have better reporting at the state level to NICS to prohibit purchases, universal checks, AND registration. Without those three components, you cannot A) reliably prevent new sales to prohibited persons, B) reliably prevent sales between private parties to prohibited persons the seller might not have any reason to suspect the buyer is prohibited, and C) collect already-owned guns from people adjudicated mentally defective or even domestic violence charges, AFTER the person in question purchased a firearm.

All three prongs must be in place, or we are wasting breath here.

[FarCenter]

5. Colorado School Shooter Labeled Nice, Weird, Communist

Centennial, Colorado (CNN) To many of his neighbors, Colorado school gunman Karl Pierson was the wholesome boy next door who liked achievement and ran on the cross country team. He even worked on an Eagle Scout project two years ago.

To schoolmates, Pierson was known for his outspoken intelligence that served him well on the debate team. But at times, he acted "weird" and alienated peers with rants about communism and his aggressiveness to win every argument, they said.

One neighbor described him as bright but a social misfit whose peers ridiculed him. His mother had transferred him from another high school because of the mockery and altercations, the neighbor said.
...

The neighbor said Pierson's mother, Barbara, transferred her son to Arapahoe High School from nearby Highland Ranch High School because her son had been subjected to constant ridicule and physical altercations.

"He was socially awkward and just didn't seem to fit into the larger teenage groups, and I think that weighed on him," the neighbor told CNN.

http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/Colorado-School-Shooter-Labeled-Nice-Weird-Communist-236039961.html

Schools need to get better at identifying the shooter syndrome. In this case, they appeared to be worried enough about his threats to the debate coach to suspend him. And it is clear that the debate coach immediately recognized what the situation was when he was told Pierson was looking for him.

[Rex]

6. Seriously, I've always blamed the easy access to guns over someones mental condition.

Guns are the problem, mental health could also be part of the problem - but not without easy access to a gun first imo.

It is just too easy to get a gun and blow someone away. Period.

[Glassunion]

7. I would not blame mental health, but I would not rule it out as a mitigating factor.

I feel that it should actually be looked into in tandem with reforms that would prevent someone from so easily obtaining a firearm.