It's Not Mental Illness (Sorta)

Here are two graphical representations of data related to guns in the U.S.:

In the above, you'll see that the biggest American issue with gun-related deaths are suicides, with the biggest at-risk demo being non-Hispanic white rural males aged 65+ with a history of military service and ownership of more than one gun (and at least one handgun). Do you know anyone who fits that demo? I certainly do. In this demo, you can make an argument for mental illness being a factor if one considers a mood disorder (esp. if you want to get historical and look at involutional depression, although that label it a bit of a dusty relic), but it's just one of many factors at play in suicide.

"But we're not talking about suicide, you insensitive fuck," you might be thinking right now. "We're talking about little boys and girls shredded into bags of lifeless meat by a murder with over 1K rounds of ammo at his disposal," you vehemently hiss in my general direction, so in that spirit, let's focus on the section of the above that pertains to homicides:

Typically, if it's gun-related homicide -- much like sexual assault -- it's a horrible act made all the more heinous by the pre-existing social ties to the victims. In other words, more often than not, it's someone known to the victim in some capacity. It even happens in the sliver of the pie in red, which covers what happened in Texas, and what will likely happen at least once more before the school year ends.

Can you make the argument that what you're seeing related to homicides is driven by mental illness? If it's the most common mental illness in America -- anxiety or anxiety-related disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder -- then the harm component is almost uniformly directed toward the self rather than others. What about the next most common cluster of mental illness in the U.S., which would be mood disorders such as major depressive disorder? Again, it's most likely self-harm, if the person with the mood disorder can even muster the motivation to act.

I don't know as much about mental illness as I could, but I know more about it than the majority of people in the country. And when I try to push my feelings aside from rational consideration, which I fail at more often than I succeed, I can see the issues with mental illness -- specifically, major depressive disorder exacerbated by substance use disorder -- potentially impacting the suicide dimension more than the homicide dimension, which means that gun-related deaths could be reduced by a greater push toward increasing quality and quantity of mental illness counseling with at-risk patients, especially with new advances in telehealth.

But ultimately, it's the guns. We know it's the guns. And if we're not talking about suicides, then "mental health" as a catchphrase -- a signifier of ignorance and distraction, often spouted by the very politicians who actively work to defund and stigmatize efforts to improve mental health -- isn't helping to keep the focus on the primary drivers of these events. Nothing we've done in the 21st Century has helped stem these rivers of blood and tears, so it's time to look at different solutions, alternate products and policies that can keep elementary school children alive and Vietnam veterans alive and Americans alive instead of shredded bags of meat and bone, unified by what lies beyond. 

Please vote accordingly.