>>Data show loose gun rules, not mental illness, to blame for mass shootings

Despite the fact that most mass shootings are carried out by people without a diagnosed mental illness, mental illness is still commonly used as a defense for these massacres.

Not only is it a misconception that mental health is a primary factor in most of these crimes but these claims demonize the 57.8 million Americans who suffer from one or more mental illnesses. A prime example is the convicted murderer Nikolas Cruz, who shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, in 2018. According to a report by CNN, he will not be subjected to the death penalty due to his defense painting him as mentally disturbed, despite mental health experts who evaluated him and testified that he was not.

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Dr. Robert Denney, a clinical psychologist, testified: “He is grossly exaggerating severe mental illness, …grossly exaggerating severe psychiatric problems as well as semantic concerns, body concerns, cognitive concerns and memory complaints.”

However, according to CNN, Melisa McNeill, Cruz’s public defender, continued to argue that he was not in the mental capacity to receive the death penalty. “And in a civilized humane society, do we kill brain damaged, mentally ill, broken people?” McNeill asked. “Do we? I hope not.”

Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Parkland came together as a community, to create the national March for Our Lives movement, to speak out against the gun violence epidemic across the United States. They have made an enormous difference on a state and national level.

According to a study conducted at Columbia University, only 8% of mass shootings are committed by people diagnosed with severe mental illnesses involving psychosis. Mass murderers with psychotic symptoms are actually less likely to use a firearm to carry out the offense, yet mental health continues to be entered into the discussion every time a mass shooting occurs. It is a popular belief that someone who commits a crime so heinous must be mentally disturbed in some way.

Many political leaders share this sentiment. Among them, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who, following the Uvalde school shooting said, “We, as a state, we, as a society, need to do a better job with mental health.… Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge, period.”

It’s true that there need to be better mental health resources and accessibility in the U.S. but it seems that this issue is only ever brought up as a response to gun violence instead of the actual problem at hand: a lack of gun regulation.

The United States has more mass shootings than every other country in the world.  However, the U.S. is not the only country where people suffer from mental illnesses. So, what is the common denominator?

Not just proportionately but in absolute numbers, the U.S. has more guns than any other country yet does not have strict gun regulation. For example, in dealing with the civilian use of semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15, countries such as Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia banned these weapons after just one deadly mass shooting within their borders.

Although the data speaks for itself, congressional leaders, especially in the GOP, insist that mental health is the driving factor of gun violence in America. Critics also argue that gun laws and regulations are useless because these criminals will just purchase guns illegally. However, statistics show that banning semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15 can significantly decrease the number of mass shootings. In 1994 President Bill Clinton signed into law a 10-year ban on semi-automatic firearms. According to the American Public Health Association, while the ban was in place, from 1994 to 2004, there were an average of 8.9 mass shooting deaths per year. However, after the ban was repealed, from 2004 to 2017 the average of mass shooting deaths increased over four-fold.

It’s time that members of Congress swallow their pride, recognize the power of parents and students fighting for school safety and start caring about people over guns.

Robert Weiner was a spokesman for the Clinton and Bush White Houses and senior staff for Florida Rep. Claude Pepper. Kat Smith is a policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change and is a rising senior at the University of South Carolina. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mental illness not to blame for shooting massacres