Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Stop Blaming Mental Health for Gun Violence. The Problem is the Availability of Guns.


A group of police officers on Dec. 25 pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in the Brooklyn, where New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed on Dec. 20 as they sat in a marked squad car. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Washington Post

But it is time to recognize that adequate treatment for people with a mental disorder is a distinct problem from gun violence. A much better indicator of whether someone will be violent is whether they come from a violent, poverty stricken environment, and whether they struggle with addiction. Eliminating poverty, domestic violence and childhood exposure to bloodshed would likely make a dent in our problem with gun violence. It may even have made a difference in the life of Ismaaiyl Brinsley.
But these are not problems for the mental health system to solve. And neither is the big problem of availability of guns. Among developed countries, the United States has the highest number of guns per every 100 people (88 as compared to 15 in Australia, six in Britain and 31 in Canada). In a 2012 survey, 43 percent of individuals indicated that there was at least one gun in the household.

11 comments:

  1. Right it is not Ismaaiyl Brinsleys fault he was racist murdering animal and known associate of a racist organazation.. The gun he had was so easy to get he just had to murder people because he had a rough childhood and as we know people are not responsible for their own actions if they grew up in poor violent areas of the country..poor Ismaaiyl never had a chance to be a non violent productive citizen because of the availability of guns

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    1. Nobody said that. What we said is given that there are dangerous people like him out there, the availability of guns is an important factor.

      Why would you want guns to be so easily available to guys like him?

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  2. So by the numbers that you have stated here Mike, there are more than 80 million gun owners and GROWING!

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    1. So?

      "So," doesn't that reality kinda clash with your usual contention, that gun ownership is dying out--that gun owners are "dinosaurs"?

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    2. My question was not to indicate that I agree with the previous comment but simply that I wasn't clear on the point of it.

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    3. Um, that IS the point.

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    4. Maybe there are 80 million gun owners and growing in your wildest dreams. Gallup showed that fewer people reported living in a home with a gun. It's decreasing.

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    5. No its not and other polling agencies that you have posted here dispute your claim. Also a sharp rise in concealed permits from 2007 to 2014 by 146%, 4.5 million to 11+ million also disputes your claim. And that only recognizes states that require a permit to carry, those that don't is an unknown factor that's not included in how many that carry and or new owners that has increased. Also there is the ever growing, not declining NICS checks that's going on, that in part, doesn't show how many guns were purchased with one check or if they were new gun owners or not. Then there are certain states that do keep records of new or preexisting gun owners and types of weapons purchased and new owners have skyrocketed in every state that do keep those records. It is open information Mike, just look for it before making your ridiculous claims that you parrot from your anti organization lie promoters like your heros.

      The new estimates from the government sources are now between 100 and 120 million gun owners.

      Even this article cites 43 percent have at LEAST 1 gun in the household. That's nearly HALF Mike, HALF. And you still want to make that claim? And that's half of those that are even willing to tell a stranger taking that poll?

      Get real man, use your brain and look up the info, your a smart guy, you can do it. Don't be so bogus.

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  3. "The new estimates from the government sources are NOW between 100 and 120 million gun owners."

    You make that shit up - or provide us with a link.

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    1. Go find your own link Mike, I am not your secretary.
      That's the problem with you, why other sites ridicule you. You pop off and call people liars without doing your home work, or any kind of research at all.

      Also the 11 million plus permits, is way up even further, closer to 12 million. Look it up, quit looking like an idiot!

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