“It’s important to understand the most common underlying factors that lead to violence: untreated anger, family violence, past history of violent acts, growing up where violence is used, and being young and male. To be clear, anger is not a mental illness. Hatred of others is not a mental illness.
Wasting time pointing to mental illness doesn’t get us closer as a nation to solving the gun violence epidemic, and doing so leads to discrimination and stigma against those with mental illness — who are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.
Other countries with similar percentages of people with mental illness in their populations don’t see the same level of mass gun violence that we do in the U.S. In 1996, a massacre in Scotland killed 16 students and one teacher. The United Kingdom took legislative action, and 23 years later, all forms of gun violence have significantly dropped. In stark contrast, America has more guns and more guns per capita than any other nation. With 120 civilian firearms for every 100 people, the United States more than doubles the next country in line.“