I don't really have anything new to say about the Newtown incident. I talked about the Aurora incident at the showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" and I have to admit that if that hadn't been Batman related I probably wouldn't have mentioned it. Hearing about mass shootings in the US has become unremarkable for us here in the UK. The US has widespread legal gun ownership, including the ownership of powerful assault weapons (for hunting purposes apparently...), whereas in the UK guns are generally confined to gun ranges in urban areas and across the country the use of hand guns by civilians is banned. We do admittedly still have the occasional gun-crazed maniac, such as the Cumbrian shootings just over two years ago, and in London we have plenty of criminals in possession of illegal firearms, but it simply isn't on the same scale as in the US.
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I recognise that the situation with guns in America is complicated, but I have to address the complete loser who was trying to blame the whole thing on mental illness. Fortunately I'm not talking about Morgan Freeman. In actual fact, the words placed in Morgan Freeman's mouth weren't as awful as the words of the guy I actually wish to speak about, but it thankfully turns out that Morgan Freeman never said them. The statement attributed to Morgan Freeman regarding the Newtown incident was a hoax. The falsely-attributed statement insisted that we remember the victims rather than the murderer (which I think people are actually doing a lot this time around anyway), that we stop making a big deal about the incident on the news (I'm not sure that this helps the victims deal with the incident at all), that we avoid making people think that they'll be remembered if they murder a bunch of schoolchildren (which is an interesting point), but the very brief but significant point from this fake comment which bugged the hell out of me was this:
"You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem."
Now it just so happens that this also the main focus of the argument made by Richard Feldman, chief douchebag of the Independent Firearm Association. He claims that the biggest cause of massive shootings is "mentally deranged individuals" and therefore who does he think is REALLY responsible? (*nudge nudge* Any guesses?) Mental health provision!
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Now don't get me wrong. I'm sure mental health provision can be improved. It's not exactly on top form in the UK either and with all the medical insurance issues with ANY kind of healthcare in the US, I'm sure it's a pretty major concern there. It's this supposed link with gun crime that concerns me. It's almost like Feldman believes that the Aurora shooter just happened to be wandering around with a bunch of guns and thought "why not use them in my local cinema?" This is a guy who boobytrapped his entire house with the full intention that it would hurt the police officers who went to search it. These crimes aren't just random flights of fancy by mentally deranged individuals in need of help. They are acts of sick and twisted individuals who are lacking in humanity. These killers are not confused about what they did. They are methodical and capable.
As much as better mental health treatments would help people with mental illness, it does sufferers of mental illness no favours whatsoever to label them all as the biggest threat when it comes to gun crime. There might be certain conditions were a person probably shouldn't be in control of a gun and in the majority of cases I suspect such individuals would insist that they not be put in charge of a gun, but I cannot imagine a situation where that then leads to them boobytrapping their house and going on a gun rampage in their local public setting of choice.
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Oh yeah, that's exactly how it works. *facepalm*
The connection between mental health issues and gun-crazed rampages is not there, unless perhaps you include things like "being highly upset and possibly depressed by losing your job or being left by your wife" as, by itself, a mental derangement. The Cumbrian shooter was upset that he lost his job. Admittedly, the Aurora shooter apparently suggested to friends that he might have dysphoric mania saying they should stay away from him for this reason, but it's not at all clear that there's a direct correlation between his actions and any possible mental health issues. His decision to proceed with his plan seems to have come after failing a recent test at the university he was attending.
In actual fact, the Newtown shooter's mother was a survivalist who was preparing for some kind of apocalyptic event, so it seems that there were ideological elements (which isn't the same as a mental illness, as I'm sure you are all aware) in the case of this most recent incident.
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Below (under the cut) is the whole interview on the BBC with Richard Feldman. I must warn you, the guy is a complete idiot, and I'm pleased to see that the interviewer makes a point of not humouring any of his attempts to pass the buck to the mental health services. The most important bit for me is where the interviewer notes that gun-related deaths of young children in a certain age-bracket are 13 times higher in the US and his response is essentially, it's too late to do anything about it and don't take away our guns. I don't care if hunting is EASIER with a semi-automatic weapon (since some US gun fanatics seem to insist on this), it's utterly ludicrous for those kinds of firearms to be available to the general public.
Oh and "it couldn't have happened if we banned mental illness"? Mr. Feldman, you suck.
Edit:Dr. Jen Gunter has an interesting post where she notes that the mental illnesses most clearly linked with gun-related massacres are schizophrenia and psychopathy. The former can be treated and better access to mental health might well help such people and prevent attacks in some cases. The latter, however, is pretty much untreatable and unlikely to be at all easy to spot. Psychopaths don't really act drastically differently from other people.
Naturally Dr. Gunter wants mental health provision to improve. Don't we all? But if anyone is getting the idea that it's going to mean that all psychopaths are quickly and easily identified (never mind preventing future atrocities through treatment) that is naive (and I'm certain Dr. Gunter would not wish anyone to be drawn to that conclusion).
Psychopathy is not generally a condition that leaves sufferers feeling like they need external help. The idea that labelling and treating psychopaths with the aim of reducing gun crime is a compassionate move is misleading. What if they refuse treatment? What if (as may well be the case) their condition does not improve as a result of the treatment provided? Will they be locked away on the offchance that they 'might' commit a crime in the future? Psychopaths are not so capable of empathy but they make decisions like anyone else and psychopathy is not a condition that prevents the subject from being held accountable for their crimes. Their mental health treatment is pretty much irrelevant to the gun crime issue in the US. (Dr. Gunter's original article is here.)
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calapine has made a post about this issue here.
I recognise that the situation with guns in America is complicated, but I have to address the complete loser who was trying to blame the whole thing on mental illness. Fortunately I'm not talking about Morgan Freeman. In actual fact, the words placed in Morgan Freeman's mouth weren't as awful as the words of the guy I actually wish to speak about, but it thankfully turns out that Morgan Freeman never said them. The statement attributed to Morgan Freeman regarding the Newtown incident was a hoax. The falsely-attributed statement insisted that we remember the victims rather than the murderer (which I think people are actually doing a lot this time around anyway), that we stop making a big deal about the incident on the news (I'm not sure that this helps the victims deal with the incident at all), that we avoid making people think that they'll be remembered if they murder a bunch of schoolchildren (which is an interesting point), but the very brief but significant point from this fake comment which bugged the hell out of me was this:
"You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem."
Now it just so happens that this also the main focus of the argument made by Richard Feldman, chief douchebag of the Independent Firearm Association. He claims that the biggest cause of massive shootings is "mentally deranged individuals" and therefore who does he think is REALLY responsible? (*nudge nudge* Any guesses?) Mental health provision!
Now don't get me wrong. I'm sure mental health provision can be improved. It's not exactly on top form in the UK either and with all the medical insurance issues with ANY kind of healthcare in the US, I'm sure it's a pretty major concern there. It's this supposed link with gun crime that concerns me. It's almost like Feldman believes that the Aurora shooter just happened to be wandering around with a bunch of guns and thought "why not use them in my local cinema?" This is a guy who boobytrapped his entire house with the full intention that it would hurt the police officers who went to search it. These crimes aren't just random flights of fancy by mentally deranged individuals in need of help. They are acts of sick and twisted individuals who are lacking in humanity. These killers are not confused about what they did. They are methodical and capable.
As much as better mental health treatments would help people with mental illness, it does sufferers of mental illness no favours whatsoever to label them all as the biggest threat when it comes to gun crime. There might be certain conditions were a person probably shouldn't be in control of a gun and in the majority of cases I suspect such individuals would insist that they not be put in charge of a gun, but I cannot imagine a situation where that then leads to them boobytrapping their house and going on a gun rampage in their local public setting of choice.
Oh yeah, that's exactly how it works. *facepalm*
The connection between mental health issues and gun-crazed rampages is not there, unless perhaps you include things like "being highly upset and possibly depressed by losing your job or being left by your wife" as, by itself, a mental derangement. The Cumbrian shooter was upset that he lost his job. Admittedly, the Aurora shooter apparently suggested to friends that he might have dysphoric mania saying they should stay away from him for this reason, but it's not at all clear that there's a direct correlation between his actions and any possible mental health issues. His decision to proceed with his plan seems to have come after failing a recent test at the university he was attending.
In actual fact, the Newtown shooter's mother was a survivalist who was preparing for some kind of apocalyptic event, so it seems that there were ideological elements (which isn't the same as a mental illness, as I'm sure you are all aware) in the case of this most recent incident.
Below (under the cut) is the whole interview on the BBC with Richard Feldman. I must warn you, the guy is a complete idiot, and I'm pleased to see that the interviewer makes a point of not humouring any of his attempts to pass the buck to the mental health services. The most important bit for me is where the interviewer notes that gun-related deaths of young children in a certain age-bracket are 13 times higher in the US and his response is essentially, it's too late to do anything about it and don't take away our guns. I don't care if hunting is EASIER with a semi-automatic weapon (since some US gun fanatics seem to insist on this), it's utterly ludicrous for those kinds of firearms to be available to the general public.
Oh and "it couldn't have happened if we banned mental illness"? Mr. Feldman, you suck.
Interviewer (Sarah Montague): Richard Feldman is president of the Independent Firearm Association. I spoke to him earlier and asked if it WAS now time for SOME tightening of gun controls.
Richard Feldman: Well if we look at the facts of this case, these guns didn't come from a gun show. They were stolen by the shooter from his mother.
Y'know when we start looking at guns we miss the opportunity to focus on the problem, which is always 'in whose hands are the guns?'
This particular case, and all the other mass shootings, involve clearly mentally deranged individuals. It's a very difficult question, but we have a failed mental health system now in this country. And if we don't put resources into getting at these people BEFORE they commit such horrible acts, we're not going to solve this problem. We could lower the speed limit too. It isn't going to prevent deranged individuals from having episodes like this.
Interviewer (Sarah Montague): But you are always going to have deranged damaged individuals in a society. The problem surely comes when there are so many guns and is it not time for the United States to find a way to remove some of the guns in society?
Richard Feldman: There are over 300 million firearms owned in civillian hands in the United States of America. It's an interesting discussion but it's also an irrelevant one. For those who think it would be a good idea, it's really too late. That's just not the answer and fighting the hundred million Americans who own guns and didn't misuse their guns; why do we want to take away the guns from the people who DIDN'T misuse them?
Interviewer (Sarah Montague): Can I interrupt here? What perhaps seems so very odd to perhaps many people outside the United States is to hear this argument and think... I mean, do you think if there WERE a ban on assault weapons what we saw in Newtown; it just couldn't have happened could it?
Richard Feldman: Well, if we banned mental illness it couldn't have happened either. Having a ban isn't going to make the very people we would like to prevent from having them, having them. They are already owned by tens of millions of people. What is the government planning to do? Come and get the guns? I don't think so. It would be unconstitutional at this point. Our supreme court has already ruled on this issue.
Interviewer (Sarah Montague): So what happens? Whatever President Obama tries to do nothing will change?
Richard Feldman: No, I didn't say that and I hope things DO change. There's a lot of things that we could do. We could do better. We can talk about the gun show so-called 'loophole', but that's not where criminals obtain the majority of their guns.
Interviewer (Sarah Montague): So what would YOU do to tighten the gun laws?
Richard Feldman: I wouldn't do anything particularly on the gun laws. I would focus, if we are dealing with mentally deranged individuals, it's our mental health system. We can't incarcerate people. We can't take them off the streets until they actually do something that's dangerous. Well it's too late when they've already committed murder or killed themselves. If we can't help them beforehand. And our laws prevent us from helping them.
And these incidences, as tragic as they are, as horrific as they are, statistically-speaking are extremely rare. You're much more likely to be killed on your way to or from the school in a horrible automobile accident, but naturally that's not going to make international news, but that's the reality.
Interviewer (Sarah Montague): But the statistics for the number of children murdered in America by guns between 5-14 are thirteen times more likely to be murdered with a gun than in other industrialised countries. Are you saying that there's nothing that can be done about that because it's just everybody has guns and it's too LATE to remove them from society?
Richard Feldman: That's part of it uh, and I AM saying that. But it's not going to play in the United States of America. The gun-owning community is not prepared to give up their firearm freedoms because a few individuals misuse those freedoms.
Interviewer (Sarah Montague): Richard Feldman, thank you very much.
Edit:Dr. Jen Gunter has an interesting post where she notes that the mental illnesses most clearly linked with gun-related massacres are schizophrenia and psychopathy. The former can be treated and better access to mental health might well help such people and prevent attacks in some cases. The latter, however, is pretty much untreatable and unlikely to be at all easy to spot. Psychopaths don't really act drastically differently from other people.
Naturally Dr. Gunter wants mental health provision to improve. Don't we all? But if anyone is getting the idea that it's going to mean that all psychopaths are quickly and easily identified (never mind preventing future atrocities through treatment) that is naive (and I'm certain Dr. Gunter would not wish anyone to be drawn to that conclusion).
Psychopathy is not generally a condition that leaves sufferers feeling like they need external help. The idea that labelling and treating psychopaths with the aim of reducing gun crime is a compassionate move is misleading. What if they refuse treatment? What if (as may well be the case) their condition does not improve as a result of the treatment provided? Will they be locked away on the offchance that they 'might' commit a crime in the future? Psychopaths are not so capable of empathy but they make decisions like anyone else and psychopathy is not a condition that prevents the subject from being held accountable for their crimes. Their mental health treatment is pretty much irrelevant to the gun crime issue in the US. (Dr. Gunter's original article is here.)
calapine has made a post about this issue here.