Mental illness isn't the cause of mass shootings, let's just make that clear

[renie408]

38. I think the phrase "mental illness" covers a lot of ground.

I would imagine that ALL mass murderers have something going on mentally that ain't quite right. The fact that they choose to kill mass numbers of presumably innocent people illustrates that.

This is like a logic question: "If all mass murderers are mentally ill, are all mentally ill people destined to become mass murderers?"

Of course not. The vast majority of mentally ill people hurt nobody at all. They are not hurting others, they are too busy trying to navigate life to bother with killing other people.

SOME mental disorders, however, have a greater chance of disintegrating into mass murder. I think we need to get a little more specific about which conditions pose a greater degree of threat. While it is disingenuous to propose that mental illness plays NO factor in these occurrences, it is also incorrect to assume it is the ONLY factor.