{"id":120641,"date":"2022-06-16T14:23:44","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T18:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=120641"},"modified":"2022-06-16T14:23:44","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T18:23:44","slug":"do-psychiatric-meds-and-war-games-lead-to-mass-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=120641","title":{"rendered":"Do Psychiatric Meds and War Games Lead to Mass Shootings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola<\/p>\n

Matt Walsh has been trying to get transgender gurus to tell him what a woman is.<\/p>\n

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STORY AT-A-GLANCE<\/h3>\n
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  • While many have bought into the simplistic idea that availability of firearms is the cause of mass shootings, a number of experts have pointed out a more uncomfortable truth, which is that mass shootings are far more likely the result of how we\u2019ve been mistreating mental illness, depression and behavioral problems<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Gun control legislation has shown that law-abiding Americans who own guns are not the problem, because the more gun control laws that have been passed, the more mass shootings have occurred<\/span><\/li>\n
  • 97.8% of mass shootings occur in \u201cgun-free zones,\u201d as the perpetrators know legally armed citizens won\u2019t be there to stop them<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Depression per se rarely results in violence. Only after antidepressants became commonplace did mass shootings really take off, and many mass shooters have been shown to be on antidepressants<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Antidepressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are well-known for their ability to cause suicidal and homicidal ideation and violence<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    While many have bought into the simplistic idea that availability of firearms is the cause of mass shootings, a number of experts have pointed out a more uncomfortable truth, which is that mass shootings are far more likely the result of how we\u2019ve been mistreating mental illness, depression and behavioral problems.<\/p>\n

    An article written by Molly Carter, initially published on ammo.com at an unknown date1<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0and subsequently republished by The Libertarian Institute in May 2019,2<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0and psychreg.org in late January 2021,3<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0noted:<\/p>\n

    \u201cAccording to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a mass murder occurs when at least four people are murdered, not including the shooter … during a single incident …<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Seemingly every time a mass shooting occurs … the anti-gun media and politicians have a knee-jerk response \u2014 they blame the tragedy solely on the tool used, namely firearms, and focus all of their proposed \u2018solutions\u2019 on more laws, ignoring that the murderer already broke numerous laws when they committed their atrocity.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Facts matter when addressing such an emotionally charged topic, and more gun control legislation has shown that law-abiding Americans who own guns are NOT the problem. Consider the following: The more gun control laws that are passed, the more mass murders have occurred.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Whether or not this is correlation or causation is debatable. What is not debatable is that this sick phenomenon of mass murderers targeting \u2018gun-free zones,\u2019 where they know civilian carry isn\u2019t available to law-abiding Americans, is happening.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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    According to the Crime Prevention Research Center,4<\/span><\/sup>\u00a097.8% of public shootings occur in \u2018gun-free zones\u2019 \u2013 and \u2018gun-free zones\u2019 are the epitome of the core philosophical tenet of gun control, that laws are all the defense one needs against violence …<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This debate leads them away from the elephant in the room and one of the real issues behind mass shootings \u2014 mental health and prescription drugs.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Ignoring what\u2019s going on in the heads of these psychopaths not only allows mass shootings to continue, it leads to misguided gun control laws that violate the Second Amendment and negate the rights of law-abiding U.S. citizens.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    As Jeff Snyder put it in The Washington Times: \u2018But to ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The Elephant in the Room: Antidepressants<\/h2>\n

    Thoughts, emotions and a variety of environmental factors play into the manifestation of violence, but mental illness by itself cannot account for the massive rise in mass murder \u2014 unless you include antidepressants in the equation. Yet even when mental health does enter the mass shooter discussion, the issue of antidepressants, specifically, is rarely mentioned.<\/p>\n

    The fact is, depression per se rarely results in violence. Only after antidepressants became commonplace did mass shootings take off, and many mass shooters have been shown to be on antidepressants.<\/p>\n

    Prozac, released in 1987, was the first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) to be approved for depression and anxiety. Only two years earlier, direct-to-consumer advertising had been legalized. In the mid-1990s, the Food and Drug Administration loosened regulations, direct-to-consumer ads for SSRIs exploded and, with it, prescriptions for SSRIs.<\/p>\n

    In 1989, just two years after Prozac came to market, Joseph Wesbecker shot 20 of his coworkers, killing nine. He had been on Prozac for one month, and the survivors of the drug-induced attack sued Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac. Since then, antidepressant use and mass shootings have both risen, more or less in tandem.<\/p>\n

    In the two decades between 1988 and 2008, antidepressant use in the U.S. rose by 400%,5<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0and by 2010, 11% of the U.S. population over the age of 12 were on an antidepressant prescription.6<\/span><\/sup><\/p>\n

    In 1982, pre-Prozac, there was one mass shooting in the U.S.7<\/span><\/sup>\u00a0In 1984, there were two incidents and in 1986 \u2014 the year Prozac was released \u2014 there was one. One to three mass shootings per year remained the norm up until 1999, when it jumped to five.<\/p>\n