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who is affected by gun violence-Luke Fulton

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My voice recording for the project-Luke Fulton

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Mental illness does NOT correlate with gun violence

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Mental illness does NOT correlate with gun violence

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According to namica.org, people with mental illness only commits 4% of all violence and gun violence could be even lower. According to research here is higher risk of gun violence in history of domestic abuse, use of drugs and alcohol, teenager activities, physical, and sexual abuse. According to another source (mhanational.org), 95-97% of all homicides are not committed by people with mental illness. However mental illness or depression have an extremely close connection with suicide. Firearm death that are linked to mental illness are suicide by guns. Suicide by gun happened 85% of the time. In conclusion mental health is NOT a correlation with gun violence but are instead correlated with firearm suicide.

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Find out the latest on what we're doing every day to improve mental health support and services for all Californians. NAMI California is a passionate team made of families, members, affiliates, and partners throughout the state who are leading the change on mental illness.

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Mental illness does not correlate with gun violence

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Mental illness does not correlate with gun violence

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"Approximately on in five Americans have diagnosed mental illness in a given year
Mental illness is not the cause of gun violence. The United States has similar rates of mental illness to other countries, but has much higher rates of gun violence"

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The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence

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Background

Many Americans live with mental illness. Indeed, around one in five Americans (43.4 million) have a diagnosed mental illness in a given year and one in 25 Americans (9.8 million) have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.1

It is critical to understand that mental illness is not the cause of gun violence. The United States has similar rates of mental illness to other countries but much higher rates of gun violence.2, 3 The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is nearly 25 times higher than other high-income countries and the firearm suicide rate is nearly 10 times that of other high-income countries. Overall rates of gun deaths are 11.4 times higher in the U.S. as compared to other high-income countries.4

Violence has many contributing risk factors and mental illness alone is very rarely the cause. Only 4% of interpersonal violence in the United States is solely attributable to mental illness.5 Indeed, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of interpersonal violence than perpetrators of violence.6 Similarly, there is no one single cause of suicide. While mental illness, specifically depression, is a risk factor for suicide, not everyone who experiences suicidality or dies by suicide has a mental illness. It is estimated that more than half of all suicide decedents did not have a known mental health diagnosis at the time of their death.7 People who die by firearm suicide are even less likely to have a diagnosis.8 Research also has found that mental illness is only weakly correlated with suicidal thoughts and behavior.9

Gun violence prevention policies that focus solely on a mental health diagnosis will not stop gun violence. Instead, these policies fuel prejudice and fear around people living with a mental illness and could lead to people avoiding mental health services.

What is mental illness?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines mental illnesses as "conditions that affect a person's thinking, feeling, mood, or behavior."18
What is serious mental illness?
The CDC defines serious mental illness as "a mental illness or disorder with serious functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities."19

Interpersonal Violence And Mental Illness

After mass shootings and other widely publicized shootings, people often blame mental illness as the cause of gun violence. It is common to read reports that describe the shooter as "psychotic" or "mentally disturbed." These shootings capture the public's attention and reinforce the harmful myth that mental illness causes violent behavior.

We know that is not the case.

Research consistently shows that the majority of people living with mental illness, including those with serious mental illness, are not violent towards others.20, 21 In fact, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of interpersonal violence than perpetrators.22

There are certain times, in certain settings, when small sub-groups of people with serious mental illness are at elevated risk of violence, such as the period surrounding a psychiatric hospitalization or first episode of psychosis.23, 24 Still, only a very small proportion of interpersonal violence in the United States - about 4% - is attributable to mental illness alone.25 This means that if we were to somehow "cure" mental illness nationwide, we would still be left with 96% of interpersonal violence.

Unfortunately, we continue to see policy proposals for firearm restrictions based on mental illness diagnoses. Policies that restrict access to guns based solely on diagnosis are not only stigmatizing, but will not significantly reduce overall rates of gun violence in the United States.26, 27

Instead of focusing on mental illness, policies and programs to reduce gun violence should focus on evidence-based, behavioral risk factors for future violence, such as past violent behavior,28 domestic violence,29 risky substance use,30, 31 and risky alcohol use.32 Other risk factors for violence related to life experiences, personality, and identity that can be helpful markers for support and prevention programs include exposure to violence,33 being male,34 being young,35 and impulsive anger.36

"The terms we hear from people on both sides of the aisle, such as 'the dangerously mentally ill,' are misleading, damaging to the mental health community, and not based on evidence. The gun lobby, politicians, and the ill-informed media have conditioned us to associate mental illness with violence. The idea that mentally ill means violent is an alternative fact. Period."

- Josh Horwitz, Executive Director

Suicide And Mental Illness

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young adults aged 25-34, and the 10th leading cause of death among all Americans.37 Making up three-fifths of gun deaths, suicide is a major contributor to the gun violence epidemic.38

There is no one single cause of suicide, and while mental illness is a risk factor for suicide, not everyone who is experiencing suicidality or dies by suicide has a mental illness. In fact, mental illness is only weakly correlated with suicidal thoughts and behavior.39, 40 It is estimated that more than half of all suicide decedents did not have a known mental health diagnosis at the time of their death and that firearm suicide decedents were even less likely to have a diagnosis.41 As such, the mental health system alone is not an effective pathway for preventing firearm suicide.42 There is research to support the idea that, overall, access to more behavioral health treatment only has a small protective effect on the rate of firearm suicide.43

Suicide Decedents with Mental Health Conditions

Additionally, suicidal thoughts and behaviors often fluctuate over time. They are often prompted by difficult life situations which themselves may change over time. Such life stressors include relationship problems or rejection, financial and housing instability, criminal/legal troubles, death of a loved one, serious illness, trauma, physical or sexual abuse, family violence or distress/dysfunction, persecution, and other recent or impending crises. Impulsive or aggressive tendencies, risky alcohol or substance use, and easy access to lethal methods, such as firearms, also increase suicidal risk.44

Ensuring that someone doesn't have access to a firearm during a potential suicidal crisis, regardless of mental illness, can often be the difference between life and death.

Preventing suicide is an important part of gun violence prevention. However, focusing only on mental illness is not sufficient to prevent these deaths. To effectively prevent suicide, we must reduce easy access to guns, especially during periods of elevated risk.

Prevent Firearm Suicide

Prevent Firearm Suicide is a project of the Ed Fund that was developed to raise awareness about how temporarily reducing access to firearms during periods of high risk for suicide is life-saving. PreventFirearmSuicide.com shares effective, evidence-based interventions for firearm suicide prevention; information on the intersection of firearms and suicide including risk factors and statistics; state-level firearm suicide for all 50 states; and includes a robust resource library of educational materials, initiatives, research, and other resources about firearm suicide prevention and means safety. To learn more, please visit PreventFirearmSuicide.com and our page on firearm suicide.

Focusing on mental illness is problematic for gun violence prevention

Gun violence prevention policies that focus solely on a mental illness diagnosis will not stop gun violence and, instead, could fuel prejudice and fear around people living with a mental illness and may lead to people avoiding mental health services. We must dispel the myth that living with a mental illness makes you dangerous and likely to perpetrate violence towards others.

HATE IS NOT A MENTAL ILLNESS

Evidence shows that narratives surrounding shootings are different based on the race of the shooter. An analysis of 219 mass shootings and subsequent news coverage found that the shooters' race strongly predicted whether the media discussed the shooters' mental health.63 When a mass shooting was carried out by a White or Latino person, the media often attributed it to mental illness. White shooters, in particular, were framed as good people suffering from extreme life circumstances and were 19 times more likely to be framed as suffering from mental illness compared to Black shooters. Black and Latino perpetrators were more often portrayed as ongoing threats to public safety, while White perpetrators were viewed more sympathetically, putting the blame on mental illness and not on the individuals themselves.

We know that hate is not a mental illness. We know that changing the narrative after a mass shooting based on the skin color of the perpetrator is both dangerous and factually incorrect. And yet, time and time again, the media is quick to call something "terrorism" if the perpetrator was Black, and quick to blame mental illness when the perpetrator was White.64, 65

"Most of the time, mass shooters aren't driven by delusions or voices in their head. They are driven by a need to wield their power over another group. They are angry at the perceived injustices that have befallen them at the hands of others - women who wouldn't sleep with them, fellow students who didn't appreciate their talents, minorities enjoying rights that were once only the privilege of white men like them. It's not an altered perception of reality that drives them; it's entitlement, insecurity, and hatred. Maybe some of them also have depression, ADHD, or anxiety, but that is not why they opened fire on a group of strangers."

- Amy Barnhorst, Vice Chair for Community Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Davis and member of the Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy

Stop the Stigma

When the media, politicians, or other public figures blame a shooter's behavior on mental illness, they are stigmatizing and discriminating against the millions of Americans living with mental illness. Terms such as "the dangerously mentally ill" are misleading, disparaging, and not based on evidence.

The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence works to ensure that our messaging and policy recommendations do not stigmatize those living with mental illness. We know that mental illness diagnoses do not define people, and mental illness is not a choice. We can't choose where we come from, we can't choose what we look like, and we can't choose whether or not to have a mental illness.

The way we talk about gun violence - and the laws that we support - should be based on facts, not falsehoods. To be effective, we must focus on dangerous behaviors - not diagnoses. By focusing on dangerous behaviors as established by research, we can make gun violence - including gun suicide - rare and abnormal.

Mental Health Consequences of Gun Violence

While the evidence is clear that mental illness is not the cause of gun violence, incidents of gun violence may cause mental health difficulties for survivors of gun violence. Mental health effects following gun violence may include depression, anxiety, trauma, post traumatic stress disorder, intrusive thoughts, sleep problems, and personality changes.66 Additionally, the trauma of gun violence can ripple out into the community, far beyond those who were shot or injured. Family members, friends, neighborhoods, communities, first responders, and health care providers may all experience adverse mental health effects.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Focus gun violence prevention policies on evidence-based risk factors - not mental illness. Use appropriate language and avoid harmful stereotypes.
Mental illness does not cause gun violence. Gun violence prevention policies should be evidence-based, promote public safety, and respect individuals with mental illness.

Firearm removal laws, like extreme risk protection orders, should not be based on a mental health diagnosis and should be based on risk factors for violence and overall dangerousness, like a history of violent behavior, domestic violence, and risky alcohol use.

The language we use when talking about mental illness should be judgment free and not reinforce stereotypes or negative beliefs.

How to talk about mental illness without the stigma:

Mentally ill, mental defective

Person with mental illness

Person-first language is preferred. A diagnosis does not define an individual.

Dangerously mentally ill

Person with serious (severe) mental illness

The word "dangerous" is stigmatizing, not based on facts, and not a clinical word. No person is dangerous purely because they have a serious mental illness.

Resources

Educational Materials

Fact sheets

Reports

Read More

May 2019 Q&A, In My Voice: For Years, I Equated Mental Illness with Violence. I Was Wrong

May 2019 Q&A, In My Voice: I Experienced Gun Violence Firsthand and Struggled with My Mental Health. Now I'm Working to Help Others Address Both

May 2019 Q&A, In My Voice: Seeking Help and Navigating Discrimination as a Black, Female Therapist

May 2019 Q&A, In My Voice: Decoupling Mental Illness and Violence as a Psychiatrist

May 2019 blog, Recovering, Not Recovered

March 2019 blog, It's Time to Retire the Term "Red Flag Laws"

January 2019 roundtable, Guns, Suicide, and Mental Illness: A Roundtable Discussion

October 2018 blog, Don't Call Us Dangerous. Don't Call Us "the Mentally Ill"

September 2018 blog, Six phrases that stigmatize suicide and mental illness

September 2018 article in Channel 3000, Officials Warn Not to Jump to Conclusion that Middleton Shooting is Related to Mental Health

May 2018 article in The Advocate, Why Didn't Bizarre Behavior Block Man Accused in Lafayette Police Officer's Death From Buying a Gun?

March 2018 article in the New Yorker, A Glimmer of Hope in the Political Impasse on Gun Control

February 2017 op-ed in the Huffington Post, We Can Stop Gun Violence Without Blaming People Living With Mental Illness

Research

Additional Resources

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Mental Illness and Gun Violence - The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence

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Many Americans live with mental illness. Indeed, around one in five Americans (43.4 million) have a diagnosed mental illness in a given year and one in 25 Americans (9.8 million) have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.1 It is critical to understand that mental illness is not the cause of gun violence.

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I don't know if this is useful or not but

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I don't know if this is useful or not but

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Team ENOUGH: We are the generation that will end gun violence!

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In 2020, the states, Mississippi, Wyoming, and Louisiana will all exceed over 25 gun related deaths per 100,000 which is almost 5 times more than New York, which has 5.2 gun related deaths per 100,000. According to the Gun Violence Archive, Mass shootings (an incident where 4 or more people were shot) kill 513 people in 2020. Over 1 million Americans have been shot in the past decade, and gun violence rates are rising across the country. In 2020, gun deaths reached their highest level in at least 40 years, with 45,222 deaths that year alone. -

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Why are the number of gun violence increasing?

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Why are the number of gun violence increasing?

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https://youtu.be/IQ-to6juHr0
Jennifer Mascia - a reporter for The Trace that’s a nonprofit news room focused on America’s gun violence crisis
Data analysis:
There has been increase in gun sales and 12 mass shootings that weekend
“Two years ago, there were 88 mass shootings at this time, so January through April . 2021 last year in April there were 155. That’s a big leap. This year we have 147”
“So it seems that 2020 was something of a turning point and the violence is happening earlier in the year now”
Geoff Bennett: “So gun violence is going up, but the crime rate is going down. That seems counterintuitive. How do you account for those two trends?”
“Gun violence is going up because there are 400 million guns in civilian hands in this country.”
“It’s just simple math. The more guns that are around the more people are going to use them”
“The best prevention strategy would be controlling access to firearms. Unfortunately, federal background checks only covers 78 percent of gun sales. So you have almost a quarter of gun sales happening legally with no background check.”

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What is behind the rise in gun related violence in the U.S.

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It has come as no surprise that violence, as a whole, has been steadily increasing over the years. Violence comes in many different forms which each affect  people physically and mentally, or even sometimes both. Violence can and is usually always portrayed as a form of hate towards others and sometimes yourself.

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These adults, and kids are talking about the mass shooting that just happened 

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These adults, and kids are talking about the mass shooting that just happened 

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Students speak out about the impact gun violence has on their daily lives

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celebrities speaking on gun violence-Luke Fulton

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celebrities speaking on gun violence-Luke Fulton

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Celebrities Speak Out Against Gun Violence (refinery29.com)

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Celebrities Are Speaking Out Against Gun Violence

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In the aftermath of the fatal mass shootings in Colorado Springs, CO, and San Bernardino, CA, questions of gun control are once again at the forefront of American political discussion, and now even nonpolitical figures are weighing in. A video campaign released today by Everytown for Gun Safety is asking people to speak up against gun violence.

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Are mental illness associated with gun violence?

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Are mental illness associated with gun violence?

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Research shows that individuals with mental illness only cause 4% of all violence and gun violence is even lower. They are more associated with suicide by firearm 85% of the time.

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Former President Obama on Chicago gun violence l GMA

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U94qKXxImIM

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Uvalde school shooting: Survivor says gunman told students, 'It's time to die'

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(8469) Celebrities, Activists Speak Out After Texas Mass Shooting - YouTube
Steve Kerr is tired of school shootings and moments of silence for the victims and feels something should be done.

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Most of the gun violence talk is at the last 2 minutes of the vid

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Former President Obama on Chicago gun violence l GMA

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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. Although mental health problems are part of the debate about gun regulation, the discussion has focused primarily upon the mental health of the perpetrators’ of gun crimes. In fact, most people with mental illnesses are not violent and are actually more likely to be victimized than they are to victimize others

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Gun violence, as stated before, is one of the many different forms of violence that can affect the people physically and mentally. This form of violence uses firearms to do many thing like threatening others, physical discomfort and usually death. It clearly can be seen that the use of guns, now more than ever, have been really ruining the world. You can’t go to school, church and even the supermarket without worrying about someone with a firearm shooting the place down. This can be very likely due to the fact that gun laws aren’t strict enough or that no one is even making a difference in stopping this from happening. It looks like it’s not even slowing down a little bit either with shooting happening almost every once a week.

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Around the world we see that other countries besides the U.S don’t have as much of a problem towards gun violence. This is because they are more forceful and strict with their gun laws unlike America. If other countries can’t do it, why can’t we? Perhaps it is hard changing gun laws in a way to not make people angry, but we have seen no actions whatsoever in these times where it can be seen people that gun violence ranges from gang violence to mass shootings. The government knows about these problems, but they do not care unless we push the problem to be noticed. If we do not take action, the government will not either.

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Understanding the Link between Violence and Mental Health | UPMC

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https://namica.org/advocacy/criminal-justice-advocacy/the-truth-about-mental-health-and-gun-violence/

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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.

The overwhelming majority of people with mental illness are not violent. Most people with mental health conditions will never become violent, and mental illness does not cause most gun violence. In fact, studies show that mental illness contributes to only about 4% of all violence, and the contribution to gun violence is even lower.

Research shows an increased risk of gun violence comes from a history of violence, including domestic violence; use of alcohol or illegal drugs; being young and male; and/or a personal history of physical or sexual abuse or trauma. Mental illness alone is not a predictor of violence.

We need to be careful that the response to these tragedies does not discourage people with mental health conditions from seeking treatment. Stigma far too often prevents people from getting the help they so desperately need. "When people unfairly connect mass shooters with mental illness, it stigmatizes the millions of people living with mental health struggles who are not violent," said NAMI's National Director of Advocacy and Public Policy, Kimball Angela.

While the relationship between mental illness and gun violence is very low, we need reasonable options. This includes making it possible for law enforcement to act on credible community and family concerns in circumstances where people are at high-risk.

We need to have an honest and productive national conversation about all the factors that play into this type of violence and what we can do to prevent these tragedies. Only then can we find meaningful solutions to protecting our children and communities.

More on the Subject

NAMI National statement on mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

NAMI California and NAMI Ventura statement on Thousand Oaks shooting.

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The Truth About Mental Health and Gun Violence - NAMI California

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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.

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Uvalde teacher who survived school shooting shares his story l WNT

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A gun violence survivor in a love triangle however got shot by her boyfriend's girlfriend.

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Survivor of Chicago Gun Violence Shares Story

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She feels as if the police officers should be held accountable for their repeated actions, and she does not feel as if at 13 years old she should have to be fighting for her safety 

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She feels as if the police officers should be held accountable for their repeated actions, and she does not feel as if at 13 years old she should have to be fighting for her safety 

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Naiara Tamminga (13) berates City Commission re murder of Patrick Lyoya by Police

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(17) James Corden's Message After the Texas School Shooting - YouTube

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James Corden's Message After the Texas School Shooting

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https://youtu.be/9TvHl66vlKY

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Experts Dispute Link Between Gun Violence And Mental Illness | NBC News Now

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-“Why does a police officer need to have guns if the civilians have no guns?”

-“If we take guns away from our civilians police officers won’t need to have guns”

- ”My word don’t really matter because the government gonna do what they want to do anyway, the people gonna do what they want to do”

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" Do you feel safe at school"
The answer was no
"Why not"
She stated she does not want it to happen again
" And you think it's going to happen again"
She said with no hesitation, Yes

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Uvalde shooting survivor testifies at a House hearing