Why are people buying the line that this was driven primarily mental illness

[Jamastiene]

118. What I don't understand is why point at the mentally ill when

even most serial killers are found to be sane after being evaluated by a slew of professionals in the field? Most mentally ill people are not violent. We didn't do this. The shooter did this. Most of us are just as horrified as you are by the horrible murders of all those innocent children and the adults who were killed too.

When people say the mentally ill need to be kept away from guns and that would solve the problem, they are saying only the mentally ill are capable of violence. There have been some people who have done exactly that these last few days. It is a knee jerk reaction and it adds to the stigma of being mentally ill, because the majority of mentally ill people are NOT violent.

Mentally ill no more likely to be violent than anyone else

Sunday, May 07, 2000

By Anita Srikameswaran, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Correction/Clarification: (Published May 9, 2000) Experts estimate that 0.7 percent of the population will suffer from schizophrenia over a lifetime. A story about mental illness and violence in Sunday’s editions incorrectly cited a figure 10 times higher.

Only rarely are violent acts committed by people who are mentally ill.

It's a message that has been emphasized for years -- but each time there is a deadly shooting spree, such as the recent ones for which Ronald Taylor of Wilkinsburg and Richard Baumhammers of Mt. Lebanon have been charged, many people are inherently skeptical of that assertion.

Still, experts insist that large studies support the idea that mentally ill people are no more likely to commit violent acts than anyone else, and in fact may not commit them as often as would be expected from their proportion of the population.

http://old.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20000507mental8.asp

This is but one article about intensive studies that have been done to find whether mentally ill people are more prone to violence. In fact, we are more apt to be victims of violence than the perpetrators.

This is what we know.
Fact: The police have clearly said the shooter is dead.
Fact: The only factual information we have so far is that he might have had Aspberger's or been autistic. Even that hasn't been clear, but the might is a keyword even there.
Fact: The murders were committed with guns.
Fact: The shooter killed 20 children and 7 adults.

That is really all we KNOW and even some of that is sketchy. Blaming "the mentally ill*" is not going to bring those who were murdered back. It only further stigmatizes people with mental illness.

*When people say "the mentally ill," they are insinuating we are all dangerous and violent and that is NOT true. Please read the article above and do more research from mental health professionals and learn about mental illness. We are not all heinous villains ready to commit atrocities on the public at large. Most of us are just as horrified as you are.