Not just guns
Public safety would be better served by a comprehensive mental health system.
Not even mass shootings stay in the headlines very long with all the topsyturvy news coming out of the White House every day. Unfortunately, the public seems to lose interest even faster when it’s reported that a shooter may have been mentally ill.
Maybe that’s in part due to gun control advocates’ tendency to lower their volume when a mass gunman’s history of mental illness becomes known. That doesn’t invalidate their argument, but the gun lobby uses it as ammunition to steer the conversation from the need to further restrict the availability of guns that can kill or maim dozens of people in minutes.
Instead of lowering their voices, gun control proponents should add them to the chorus of those similarly calling on politicians to close gaps in the mental health system that can lead to tragedies like Sunday’s mass shooting of 12 people at a video games tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. Two victims died. The gunman, David Katz, 24, of Columbia, Md., also fatally shot himself.
Court records show that by age 12, Katz was taking drugs to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His parents sent him to a therapeutic wilderness school in Utah when he was a teenager, but nothing worked. Elizabeth Katz said her son once punched a hole through the door of her bedroom to retrieve video game controllers she had taken from him.
An important message made by mental health groups when someone with a history of mental illness like Katz commits such a heinous crime is that it is an anomaly. That’s true. The mentally ill, too many of them living on the streets or in shelters, are more likely to be the victims of violent crime, rather than its perpetrators. But that doesn’t mean there is no correlation between mass shootings and mental illness.
In fact, a new study by Minnesota Department of Corrections researcher Grant Duwe and Bates College sociology professor Michael Rocque concluded that at least 59 percent of the mass shootings in a public place nationally between 1900 through 2017 were carried out by people either diagnosed with a mental disorder or who showed signs of a serious mental illness prior to the attack. “It’s possible for mass public shootings to be both a gun problem and a mental health problem,” said the researchers.
There should be no competition over which problem deserves more attention. They both should be addressed more directly and comprehensively than they have been. Everyone should be tired of politicians offering thoughts, prayers and study commissions after mass shootings, but little else.
It’s clear that it should be harder to get your hands on military-style, rapid-fire weapons that aren’t designed for hunting or sport. Allowing cities inundated by violent crime to individually impose such limits wouldn’t violate the Second Amendment, but it would help ensure public safety. So would more background checks and mandatory reporting of stolen or lost guns.
Similarly, public safety would be better served by a mental health system where fewer people fall through the cracks. Mental Health America, an advocacy group, says only 22 percent of the nation’s most severely depressed youth are receiving adequate treatment for their mental health problems. MHA said 57 percent of adults with mental illness are receiving no treatment at all, often due to a lack of health insurance.
With the midterm elections coming up, voters should ask every congressional and legislative candidate what he or she would do to stem gun violence. Don’t settle for some glib answer about standing up for the Second Amendment. Common sense gun laws do not violate the Constitution. Then ask candidates what specifically they would do to make sure more people get the mental health treatment they need. If they don’t have good answers, they shouldn’t get your vote.