General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn the wake of this latest shooting, I ask once again...
Please.
Please.
Please do not attack the mentally ill.
They are my friends and community and they are NOT the cause of this.
They are NOT to blame for a culture that can watch 22 children shot to death without a response.
They are NOT to blame for a country in which the right to bear a lethal weapon outweighs the right to live without fear of that lethal weapon.
They are NOT to blame for media that react as if misogynistic, right-wing sociopaths are mentally ill.
They are NOT to blame for a health system that has utterly failed to take care of the few that did unfortunately come into contact with the huge numbers of weaponry floating around our streets.
They are NOT to blame.
Please, if you are not going to help them, then at least just shut up and leave them the fuck alone. I am tired of watching them demonized.
TexasTowelie
(112,370 posts)DebJ
(7,699 posts)Old Crow
(2,212 posts)The pro-gun lobby has clearly decided that the way to take the heat off easy availability of firearms is to blame the mentally ill. There has been such a conflation of mental illness and mass shootings in the media of late that I'm concerned we're going backwards by decades in stigmatizing mental illness.
Two facts need to be emphasized:
1. The vast majority of the mentally ill are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of violence.
2. Other developed nations have mentally ill citizens, just as we do. What they do not have is mass shootings on a regular basis.