In the week before the mid-term elections, a slick political flyer arrived in my mailbox from the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. The front shows an image of a manila folder designed to look like a police file. In red and black letters it reads, "Before someone buys a gun, shouldn't we check their background?" The folder reads, "Criminal Record," and, under the tab, we can see the words "mental health evaluation" peeking out. On the inside, the document endorses the local Democratic candidate for the Minnesota state house against incumbent Republican Randy Jessup, on the grounds that Jessup would allow "violent criminals" and people "prohibited from buying guns due to mental illness" to purchase firearms.
The implication of the ad is that violently crazy people are getting guns thanks to Republicans. While I support universal background checks and other common-sense gun control laws—and would even be willing to see the Second Amendment repealedif right-wing judges keep using it to block even the most modest gun-control measures—the Everytown ad is just wrong. This pattern of linking mental illness to gun violence is misleading on the facts, will exacerbate stigma against people with mental illness, and won't particularly work to stop the proliferation of guns in this country.
[For more on this story by DAVID M. PERRY, go to https://psmag.com/social-justi...ing-the-mentally-ill]
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