De-linking mental illness / gun violence

This time, the school shooter had shown signs of emotional disturbance and behavioral problems for years.   So the leading meme -- from President Trump to neighbors -- has become:   finding a way to prevent people with emotional problems from buying guns.

The truth is that they're distorting the facts, and it makes it seem like a different problem than what it actually is.   The truth is complex.   Yes, this 19 year old obviously was disturbed over a long time -- and then his mother died on top of it all.   And, yes, he needed more help than he got.

Yes, we need more funding and resources for treatment and support for people with emotional problems.    But that's not all we need to change -- because the link between people with emotional problems and violence is small and not the primary problem. 

The book Gun Violence and Mental Illness, published in 2016 by the American Psychiatric Association, analyzes data showing that, of 235 mass killings studied, only 22% of the perpetrators could be considered mentally ill.   Another look at the data shows that "mass shootings by people with serious mental illnesses represent 1% of all gun homicides each year (reported by the New York Times).

Another perspective on this:   although the U.S. is in class all by itself when it comes to gun violence, there is no evidence to suggest that Americans have a higher incidence of mental illness than other countries.  "Evidence is clear that the large majority of people with mental disorders do not engage in violence against others" (NYT).

So let's (1) stop stigmatizing emotional disturbance by claiming a link to violence;   and (2) stop pretending that throwing a little more money into treatment programs (although any increase is welcome) will take care of the gun violence -- so our politicians don't have to make the hard decisions about doing something about our gun problem.

Ralph