You’re Not From Texas: US Gun Culture, Part Five

It’s important to note that not everyone with mental health issues poses a threat to themselves or society. In the wake of the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said, “Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge.” Mental health experts and criminologists who research mass murderers condemned Abbott’s claim as false and unjustly scapegoating people who suffer from mental illness. Even if his statement might be true, it can be misconstrued as “Anybody with a mental health challenge is a potential mass shooter.” A 2021 Rand Corporation study found that people with mental health problems are no more likely to engage in gun violence than others, and in fact are more likely to be victims of violence than be perpetrators. Research indicates that an individual can be predisposed to violence and have it amplified or activated by external events, forces, and stressors. <a href="https://medium.com/@kevin_77943/youre-not-from-texas-us-gun-culture-part-five-f8b54ef2b1ac">Read More</a>