One person shooting many people is just the flip side of many people shooting one person

[HereSince1628]

21. Consider that people with mental disorder suffer significant prejudice and discrimination

and ask yourself honestly...do you think blaming such a stigmatized group is based on actual risk or bigoted fantasy?

The NRA doesn't want to taint guns because guns have an obvious role in US gun violence. So, they tap into national bigotry toward persons with mental disorders to lump them all into a single category that operates on the other common feature of gun violence...the owner of the finger on the trigger.

The NRA's dissembling works because mental disorders are actually very very common and so almost every story of gun violence can be linked to a person with a pseudo-diagnosis of indicators of mental illness in their past by a teacher, neighbor or playmate. 25% of the US population has a mental disorder per year. By the time a person is strong enough to hold up a gun and pull the trigger, there is a damned good chance that person has already expressed some indication of a mental illness.

There may well be connections of some forms of gun violence to specific mental illnesses, and it seems that the mass-shooting plus suicide is likely to be one of then, because suicide on it's won has an 80% association with the presence of mental disorders.

But the push for zero-tolerance for persons with any mental disorder making a gun purchase is mostly just a mirror of the near zero-tolerance for mental disorders that exists in US society. America needs enemies. Without THEM we cannot be US.