On October 1st at approximately 6:22 P.M. EDT President Barack Obama stated:
“But we are not the only country on Earth that has people with mental illnesses or want to do harm to other people. We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.”
President Obama is referring to the Oregon shooting and addressing the nation on this tragedy. This is the most current devastation our nation has been faced with and these mass shootings seem to be reoccurring much too often. After a tragic event such as this happens many question how a human being could be capable of something so horrific. Could someone actually be so evil and heartless or is there a psychological illness which can be found as the cause of their actions? President Obama himself stated that a mental illness could be the cause behind this tragic event. The government
is fully aware of the serious reoccurring issue which is present in our country and they are attempting to state that there is a true reason behind these overwhelming incidents. But has the scientific research been performed to clearly prove that the causal variable of mass shootings is mental illness?
A 2001 study tested the hypothesis as to whether or not mental illness attributed to mass murders. This experiment was focused on thirty-four adolescents, a nonrandom sample of convenience of adolescent mass murderers was utilized, who had worked either together or separately, and had “committed 27 mass murders between 1958 and 1999”. The researchers state that “a majority were described as “loners” and abused alcohol or drugs; almost half were bullied by others, preoccupied with violent fantasy, and violent by history. Although 23% had a documented psychiatric history, only 6% were judged to have been psychotic at the time of the mass murder.” The conclusion to this experiment would be that “the adolescent mass murderer is often predatorily rather than affectively violent and typically does not show any sudden or highly emotional warning signs.” The results did not prove that metal illness is the cause of adolescents performing mass murders. Mental illness can be taken into consideration, but the of those who reportedly had a mental illness the majority did not have the underlying psychological issue which before/during the time of the murders.
An even more convincing study which proves that mass shooters and mental illness is unrelated was performed by two Vanderbilt University researchers: Dr. Jonathan Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish. Through extensive research they prove that people are being mislead as to what is the main cause of these mass shootings. “Fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness”. Their published article is mainly based on national data bases such as “National Center for Health Statistics” and statements made by the US Department of Justice. These are only two of the 116 sources which Metzl and MacLeish base their research on. They have an abundance of overwhelmingly clear and solid evidence as to why their conclusion that mental illness is not a factor must be true. Their article is one of, if not the, most referenced source of research based on this topic.
Metzl states, “But if you look at the research, it’s not the ‘crazy’ person you have to fear.” There are a hand full of articles which attempt to claim that mental illness is the cause of mass murders but they are mainly opinion based and have almost no statistical evidence. Due to meta-analyses the conclusion can be made that mental illness is not linked to these mass shootings. The articles and research that can be found which attempt to prove that they are related do not have a sufficient amount of evidence to solidify what they are stating. For that reason the alternative hypothesis must be rejected. In hopes of finding a reason as to why these killers preform the horrific acts that they do there are other aspects which can be looked into. Metzl also states that, “Our research finds that across the board, the mentally ill are 60 to 120 percent more likely than the average person to be the victims of violent crime rather than the perpetrators.” This would be an interesting aspect to consider. There is a possibility that the “finger” is being pointed the the wrong direction. It is not the killers with the mental issues but it might be the victims. Another aspect relating to mass shootings which many of us are familiar with is gun control. More research could be done to determine whether or not a restriction on guns would have a significant impact on mass shootings. We all want an answer as to why these shootings take place and how an individual could commit such a horrific crime. With more research the true answer can be found.
“May God bless the memories of those who were killed today. May He bring comfort to their families, and courage to the injured as they fight their way back. And may He give us the strength to come together and find the courage to change.”
-Barack Obama
Hey Brendan!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post! I actually used the exact used the source you cited in my blog. Menzel and MacLeish do state that there are similarities which can be found but they are merely assumptions. But, by the conclusion of their research, they found that, “there is actually very little literature that provides empirical evidence dealing with psychiatric predictions of dangerousness,”. There is not scientific research present to back up the opinions which many of us have when it comes to relating mental illness to gun violence. It is an excuse that most hope can be proven but again, as you stated, we have to remove our own personal bias from the situation. Additionally, I don’t believe this aspect of gun violence is a participant of the file drawer effect because countless articles have been published on this topic. I do agree that there can be influences towards these studies based on the author’s perspective of the second amendment, and that could be considered a third variable. You have a great point about how there are numerous third variables which could be present. But if the nation wasn’t so desperate to find an excuse for these horrid actions would all of these third variable concepts still come into play?
Hi Johnna,
This is a touchy subject and I’m glad you brought light to it. I like how you incorporated recent class content into your post, such as meta-analysis. I put aside my personal biases and did some research myself, and shockingly found such a small casual relationship between mental illness and violence. Check out this scientific analysis of the subject at hand . However, there a couple of things that could be further looked into for the sake of this subject.
Whether it be the opinion based lackadaisical studies that you refer to or the studies you analyzed in your post, each of the two could be the victim of the file drawer effect. Everyone has their own takeaway about the 2nd amendment, which could influence any study, not just those who correlate mental illness and violence. What about the easy accessibility to guns? Or the intuitive motives behind the concept of a mass shooting? Both are 3rd variables that are extremely hard to measure (not accessibility part honestly), but either way both factor into a scientific study. I really enjoyed reading this post, and loved the employment of class concepts as well!