The Facts on Mental Illness and Mass Shootings
Q: Do people with serious mental health disorders pose a greater risk of becoming mass shooters?
A: People with mental illnesses are somewhat more likely to be violent than those without a diagnosis. But a majority are never violent, and very little is known specifically about mass murder.
FULL QUESTION
Subject: Mental illness and mass shootings
Is Trump correct that people with mental illness, such as schizophrenia and bipolar [disorder], [are] a greater threat to society?
FULL ANSWER
Following two mass shootings over a single weekend in August, President Donald Trump simplified a complex phenomenon when he deflected calls for increased gun control by laying the blame on mental health. In a televised address the following Monday, he stated, “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.”
The two deadly attacks that precipitated the president’s comments included the Aug. 3 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 people, and the Aug. 4 shooting outside a bar in downtown Dayton, Ohio, that killed nine.
Later, the president pointed to mental illness when discussing guns, saying on Aug. 9 that “it’s a big mental illness problem” and “a sick mind pulls a trigger.” On Aug. 15, before leaving for a rally in New Hampshire, Trump said, “These people are mentally ill and nobody talks about that,” suggesting that one solution might be to bring back broad institutionalization of those with mental health disorders. “I think we have to start building institutions again,” he said. And on Aug. 18, when asked about gun control, he said, “I don’t want people to forget that this is a mental health problem.”
Trump returned to the subject on Sept. 1 following yet another mass shooting in Odessa,
