The Truth About Mental Health And Gun Violence [namica.org]

Ingrid Cockhren 5/12/2312:00 PM

From NAMI, Image: Unsplash, National Alliance on Mental Illnesss (NAMI), May 2023

Whenever we hear about another tragedy involving gun violence, we grieve along with our fellow citizens and community members impacted by it.

NAMI sees gun violence as a national public health crisis that impacts everyone.

Every time we experience a tragedy involving guns, people with mental illness are drawn into the conversation. The truth is that the vast majority of violence is not perpetrated by people with mental illness. Statements to the contrary only serve to perpetuate stigma and distract from the real issues. Far too often, we hear stigmatizing comments and generalizations about people with mental illness being violent, which simply isn’t true. This kind of misinformation comes as a punch in the gut to those of our family and community members living with mental health conditions.

[Please click here to read more.]

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Dugal ArmourMember

I get the issue around stigmatising mental illness but this does not stack up. Are we to believe that mass shootings or violence of any kind perpetrated against anyone is carried out by sane, mentally stable people? And so who are the people that are most likely to carry out these 'evil' deeds, well according to this it is people who have experienced sexual abuse or extreme violence or have recently experienced severe crisis in their lives. All this does is shift the stigma from 'mental illness' to those who have experienced or are experiencing severe trauma. This is counter to all that we know and effectively shifts the responsibility away from parents and wider society. Instead of redflaging people we need to start dealing with the red flags. We need to stop people falling through the cracks and most especially those that are most vulnerable which are our children.

5/13/2312:19 AM

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