NYAPRS Note: On the heels of the horrific killing of 13 Buffalo residents, the nation is once again in deep mourning, this time related to the heartbreaking fatal shooting of 14 students and 1 teacher in Unvalde, Texas. NYAPRS is once again deeply horrified and outraged by these heinous attacks; our hearts go out to the families and other loved ones of the victims and the people of Unvalde.
Yet, once more, Congress is split across party lines between restricting the use of deadly military styled guns and implement background checks or attributing the deaths to the presence of mental illnesses. In response to the GOP focus on mental illnesses, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy replied ““Spare me the bullshit about mental illness. We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world.” Murphy’s involvement in this issues dates back to the 2012 killings that took the life of 28 students in Newtown, CT.
The articles below provide chilling details about the rapid rise in mass shootings this year in the US and also refute substantive connections between mass shootings, as emphasized last week by NYS based mental health advocates.
Perhaps noted expert Mark Follman says it best: “….making mental illness the bogeyman detracts from making progress on stopping these attacks. That’s going to take everything we’ve got: strengthening our nation’s gun laws, quashing a surge in violent political extremism, raising cultural awareness of shooter-warning signs — and, yes, investing in a lacking mental health care system to give troubled people the help they may need before it’s too late.”
In the wake of some of the most daunting times most of us have ever experienced…a worldwide pandemic, an unimaginably brutal war and daily bombing of children and families, growing economic fears, highly charged national divides and rising rates of violence, a frightened public looks to find safety where it can.
In response, too many political leaders and elements in the media prefer to pass or push laws expanding coercion rather than meaningful gun control, relying instead on an outrageously false narrative conflating violence and mental illnesses. We must band together to redirect fear into finding real remedies…and to stand strong against the scapegoating of our community.
And, in the very poignant words of MHANYS’ Board President Bill Gettman “There will be time to rant and be angry, but now we need to support our staff, families, young persons in our programs and ourselves. We need to be on alert to reactions that may surface out of fear, trauma, and recent history. The reactions are all legitimate and we need to support everyone and find ways to talk, vent, cry and feel. Please allow for discussions with your Team and stay focused on the need to heal and express grief. Last, please hug your loved ones, children, nephews, nieces, grand kids, and family members.”
Horror Turns To Fury Over Texas School Shooting
By Emily Brooks And Lexi Lonas The Hill May 24, 2022
Horror over an elementary school shooting in Texas on Tuesday that left at least 14 students and a teacher dead quickly turned to fury as Democrats slammed Congress for its inability to take action on guns.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) took to the Senate floor shortly after the terrible news from the small city of Uvalde circulated throughout Washington, D.C., and the country, scolding his colleagues for not doing more to combat gun violence.
…“I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything that I may support, but there is a common denominator that we can find,” Murphy added.
…(Senator Joe) Manchin just last week expressed his opinion that even after the Buffalo shooting, movement on gun reform did not look likely.
“Are we going to another vote for the sake of taking a vote? Let’s do some mental illness reform,” Manchin said.
Murphy brushed off any focus on mental health over new firearm reform measures.
“Spare me the bullshit about mental illness. We don’t have any more mental illness than any other country in the world,” Murphy told reporters as he walked off the Senate floor, NBC reported.
The F.B.I. Released A Report Showing A Steep Rise In ‘Active’ Shooters On Monday.
Glenn Thrush New York Times May 24, 2022
…The bureau identified 61 “active shooter” attacks in 2021 that killed 103 people and injured 130 others. That was the highest annual total since 2017 when 143 people were killed…
The 2021 total represented a 52 percent increase from the tally of such shootings in 2020, and a 97 percent increase from 2017, according to the F.B.I.’s Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2021 report.
The F.B.I. report identified one particularly chilling trend among active shooters: Officials have noticed an increase in the number who moved from place to place in search of victims, a group the bureau refers to as “roving” shooters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/24/us/shootings-fbi-data.html
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It’s 19 Weeks Into The Year And America Has Already Seen 198 Mass Shootings
SAEED AHMED NPR May 15, 2022
It is also the 198th mass shooting in 2022. With just over 19 weeks into the year, this averages out to about 10 such attacks a week.
The tally comes from the Gun Violence Archive, an independent data collection organization. The group defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter. The full list of mass shootings in 2022 can be found here.
…The massacres don’t come out of nowhere, says Mark Follman, who has been researching mass shootings since 2012, when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
..”The general public views mass shooters as people who are totally crazy, insane. It fits with the idea of snapping, as if these people are totally detached from reality.”
That’s not the case, he said. There’s “a very rational thought process” that goes into planning and carrying out mass shootings.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/15/1099008586/mass-shootings-us-2022-tally-number
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Over 80% Of Mass Shooters Were In A Noticeable Crisis Prior To Their Shooting
https://www.theviolenceproject.org/
Op-Ed: Mass Shooters Aren’t Mentally Ill People Who Suddenly Snap. They Decide To Kill
….The claim that mental illness produces such attacks implies that mass shooters are insane, as if they are disconnected from reality and act based on no rational thinking. This goes hand in hand with the common theme that these offenders “snap,” which suggests they commit impulsive acts of violence, bursting forth from nowhere. Both explanations are wrong.
…Extensive case history shows that mass shooters don’t just suddenly break — they decide. They develop violent ideas that stem from entrenched grievances, rage and despair. In many cases they feel justified in their actions and regard killing as the sole solution to a problem. They arm themselves and prepare to attack, choosing where and when to strike. Often this is a highly organized and methodical process.
….In 2018, a deep investigation of 63 rampage shooters conducted by experts with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit showed that only a quarter of the offenders were known to have been professionally diagnosed with a mental illness of any kind. While it’s possible that some suicidal attackers may have gone undiagnosed, only three of the 63 perpetrators, or about 5% of the total examined, had a known psychotic disorder.
Blaming mental illness for mass shootings inflicts a damaging stigma on the millions of people who suffer from clinical afflictions, the vast majority of whom are not violent.
….making mental illness the bogeyman detracts from making progress on stopping these attacks. That’s going to take everything we’ve got: strengthening our nation’s gun laws, quashing a surge in violent political extremism, raising cultural awareness of shooter-warning signs — and, yes, investing in a lacking mental health care system to give troubled people the help they may need before it’s too late.
Mark Follman is the national affairs editor for Mother Jones and author of “Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America.”
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-05-21/blaming-mental-health-mass-shootings-buffalo
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Stronger gun laws needed to prevent tragedies like mass shooting in Buffalo
By Thomas Gabor Guest columnist Gainsville Sun May 25, 2022
….A 2018 American Psychological Association survey found that mass shootings constitute the greatest source of stress for 15- to 21-year-olds..
…Little attention is devoted to what connects these incidents. Whether motivated by a personal or group conflict, racial hatred, misogyny, a work-related issue or mental illness, the ease of access to military-grade weapons is the common thread that connects these tragedies.
What sets the U.S. apart is the millions of weapons in civilian hands that can fire up to 100 rounds (without reloading) at 3,000 feet per second. These weapons convert personal rage, regardless of the cause, into massacres.
…We need to take decisive action in restricting or prohibiting military-grade weapons. These weapons
serve no purpose other than offering a more efficient means of mass murder.
Thomas Gabor, Ph.D., a Florida-based criminologist and sociologist, is the author of five books on gun violence, including “CARNAGE: Preventing Mass Shootings in America” (2021).
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Are All Mass Shooters Mentally Ill?
By Jim Windell Michigan Psychological Association
…A new study is questioning the mental state of mass shooters. The research, co-led by Gary Brucato, research scientist in Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry in New York City, along with his colleagues sought to gain much-needed insight into the relationship between serious mental illness and mass shootings. Creating a mass murder database involved extensive review of 14,785 murders publicly described in English in print or online, occurring worldwide between 1900 and 2019. They then analyzed 1,315 mass murders of all types that occurred worldwide. The article was published recently in the journal Psychological Medicine.
They discovered that only 11% of all mass murderers (including shooters) and only 8% of mass shooters had a serious mental illness. They also found that mass shooters in the United States were more likely to have legal histories, use recreational drugs, abuse alcohol, and have histories of non-psychotic psychiatric or neurologic symptoms.
…Commenting on the study, Gary Brucato said that “The findings from this potentially definitive study suggest that emphasis on serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or psychotic mood disorders, as a risk factor for mass shootings is given undue emphasis, leading to public fear and stigmatization.”
Gary Brucato et al. (2021). Psychotic symptoms in mass shootings v. mass murders not involving firearms: findings from the Columbia mass murder database. Psychological Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1017/S0033291721000076
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Mass Shootings and Mental Illness
James L. Knoll IV, M.D. George D. Annas, M.D., M.P.H.
Psychiatry Online 2016
Mass shootings by people with serious mental illness represent less than 1% of all yearly gun-related homicides. In contrast, deaths by suicide using firearms account for the majority of yearly gun-related deaths.
The overall contribution of people with serious mental illness to violent crimes is only about 3%. When these crimes are examined in detail, an even smaller percentage of them are found to involve firearms
https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/appi.books.9781615371099