Kansas City recently had yet another horrific mass shooting. On the same day there were two more mass shootings in Georgia, one in Atlanta and one in Claxton. According to reports, this brings the number of mass shootings in the first 45 days of 2024 to 59 with 121 deaths. Close to 5,000 people have died in the U.S. as a result of gun violence so far in 2024. In 2023, there were 656 mass shootings and approximately 43,605 deaths due to gun violence. While these statistics are horrific, they do not begin to tell the story of the suffering, anguish and pain that victims of gun violence and their family members experience.
Several years ago, my wife received a phone call from our daughter who was living in Charlston. She told my wife that our son had been shot. He was in a hospital in Savannah. We were told that he was in a coma and in critical condition and that the next few hours would determine whether he would live or die. We were in DC, so we had to find a flight to Savannah. The whole time we were booking a flight and getting packed, we were talking with and getting updates from our daughter. We got on the plane and followed the procedure, turning our phones off. We spent the next two hours out of contact. Unless you have experienced it you cannot imagine the anguish of being on a plane for two hours wondering if, when you land, you would get a text saying that your son was dead. Thankfully my son survived.
We have heard this story many times and know the predictable script, from our political leaders especially from those who oppose any gun regulations, that follows a mass shooting.
- First there will be statements of how terrible this is and offers of “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families. This will be followed by
- Attacks and outrage at those who speak out for more gun control. The attackers will say this is not the time to talk about this. They will accuse the gun control advocates of using the crisis for political purposes.
- Then there will be statements from political leaders about how this has nothing to do with guns but rather it is a mental health issue.
- Then nothing will happen.
- Then there will be another episode of gun violence and the process will begin again.
In an article published in Psychiatric News in 2021 the author Katie O’Connor writes: “Only 4% of the violence that occurs in the United States can be attributed to people with mental illness, yet when incidents of gun violence occur, they are almost immediately associated with psychiatric illnesses.” In another article published in 2021 by The Harvard Review of Psychiatry, “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Future of Psychiatric Research into American Gun Violence”, the authors write: “Still, “mental health” remains the focus of many existing regulations as well as proposed policies to prevent gun violence in the community. Despite evidence that there is no strong connection between gun crime and mental illness.” In 2022 Dr. Jeff Temple, a psychologist and founding director of the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch wrote: “Making psychiatric disease the bogeyman is politically expedient – it allows policymakers to shy away from the true culprit. It also fits into how the public often views mental illness – as something to fear. Afterall, what else would cause someone to do something so heinous? The problem with this thinking is that it’s wrong.”
Putting aside the fact that most of the scientific evidence shows very little connection between mental health and gun violence, a number of studies have shown that only around 25% of mass murderers had exhibited a mental illness, but most of them had not appeared on the radar of either the mental health or law enforcement systems. Similarly, as reported in the Harvard Review, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) study found that only approximately 25% of shooters were known to have been diagnosed with a mental illness of some kind, ranging from minor to more serious disorders. The study concluded that “formally diagnosed mental illness is not a very specific predictor of violence of any type, let alone targeted violence.” One would think that if politicians are going to blame mental health for gun violence, they would do everything possible to ensure there was proper funding for mental health programs.
In May of 2022, after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated that the Uvalde school shooter had a “mental health challenge” and the state needed to “do a better job with mental health”. He then proceeded to cut $211 million dollars from the state’s budget for mental health programs. In 2023, the Wisconsin the Republican-led budget committee proposed cutting more than $276 million for mental health services in schools. The House Republicans proposed cutting $300 million from programs that address student mental health issues. In 2022, 210 House Republicans voted against the American Rescue Plan, which provided $12 billion to address mental health needs.
It is interesting that approximately 88% of the members of Congress claim to be Christian. But one has to wonder how many have actually read the Bible or heard the words of Jesus. The sin that is most often mentioned in the New Testament is the sin of hypocrisy. It is mentioned more than 25 times in the New Testament. From Matthew Chapter 23: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”, to Matthew 23:28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness”. I don’t know about you, but I believe a very clear example of hypocrisy would be claiming that gun violence is a mental health issue then proposing budget cuts in mental health programs. Kind of makes you wonder what would Jesus say about that.