Speaking to a gaggle of reporters at the White House, Trump described the gunman as “a very sick puppy” who had “a lot of problems.”
The suspected shooter, who died at the scene, was a 28-year-old Marine veteran. Though investigators have not yet determined a motive or whether mental illness was a factor, Trump touted his efforts at confronting post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans. He refused, however, to answer questions on gun control.
It’s [NOT] a mental health issue.
When politicians assert a cause for gun violence, they invariably lay blame on people with mental illness. For example, NRA’s Wayne LaPierre accused “delusional killers” for the violence, and he called for a “national registry” of all persons diagnosed with mental illnesses.
Politicians are merely scapegoating an entire group of people rather than acknowledging the real causes. (To paraphrase James Carville, “It’s the guns, stupid!”) And while these same politicians call for increased support systems for people with mental health issues, the Republican-dominated Congress has acted to reduce funding and supports.
Yes, for someone to take another’s life in acts other than self-defense or in war, the perpetrator could most likely be considered not fully mentally healthy. According to Jeffrey Swanson, though, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University,
We have a strong responsibility as researchers who study mental illness to try to debunk that myth. I say as loudly and as strongly and as frequently as I can, that mental illness is not a very big part of the problem of gun violence in the United States.
Swanson and other researchers found that in all violence – firearms and other forms – in the United States, only 4% is attributable to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression (the disorders most connected with violence). Most of the violence (approximately 96%) cannot be linked to mental illness.
If we are to lay blame for the violence, we must first point to the firearms manufacturers and lobbyists and their friends in Congress and state legislatures who have perpetrated the condition I call the “Firearms Under Congressional Knowledge Undermining Survival,” or FUCK US.
- Each person and as a collective nation, we collude and contribute in perpetuating this condition each time we forget merely one day or one week following a tragedy about the innocent victims who were tragically taken from us far too soon.
- Each person and as a collective nation, we collude and contribute to this condition each time we fail to speak out to our legislators to enact common-sense firearms control policies.
- Each person and as a collective nation, we collude and contribute to this condition each time we think we cannot make a difference in reducing this scourge.
- Each person and as a collective nation, we collude and contribute to this condition each time we close down and shut off emotionally to the point of numbness as we witness yet another scene of carnage on our TV screens before reporters turn over coverage to tomorrow’s local weather forecast.
As a Jew and member of a family of relatives who suffered Nazi atrocities, I surprised myself by feeling relatively nothing as I learned about the horrific shooting murders from an antisemitic hate crime at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh killing 11 parishioners and wounding 6 others, including four brave police officers.
In the aftermath, I continually watched and read as many reports as I could to stay informed. I learned about the heroic stories of courage and self-sacrifice by police and parishioners alike, and about the selfless commitment by a Jewish nurse in treating the suspected shooter.
In the following days, still feeling very little, I learned the poignant and beautiful stories of people who were murdered, including Sylvan, 86, and Bernice Simon, 84, who married at Tree of Life over 60 years ago.
And Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, a primary care physician who treated people with HIV with care and compassion since the earliest outbreak of the pandemic.
Rose Mallinger, who at age 97 was the oldest killed that day, and her daughter Andrea who was injured. In a public statement, Rose’s family wrote:
To Bubbe, family was everything. She knew her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchild better than they knew themselves. She retained her sharp wit, humor and intelligence until the very last day.
But then my emotions soared from the depths of my being and tears flowed uncontrollably as I heard the stories of Cecil and David Rosenthal, brothers and familiar faces at Tree of Life. They usually arrived first at the synagogue to great people with friendship and with love as they came for services.
Cecil and David were inseparable as constant support for one another and for parishioners. Early in their lives, physicians diagnosed them as “intellectually” or “developmentally disabled.”
But we must question whether the brothers Rosenthal had “disabilities.” We must question whether any disability they may have had was imposed upon them by a society that attempted to define them.
Was their disability, rather and more profoundly, perpetrated by a society that failed to protect them – and all the precious lives taken by gun violence – from the ultimate of all disabilities: death.
Each person, and as a collective nation, can cure the condition of Firearms Under Congressional Knowledge Undermining Survival if we are willing to work together to arrive at common-sense solutions to end the scourge that is disabling our nation.
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Photo Credit: Pixabay
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How I Explained Children Taken From Their Parents to My Mexican-American Son
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Waiting on the World to Change, Again
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Drowning in the Swamp of the Toxic Firearms Culture
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Not Sure Why I Haven’t Much Cried
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Where Have All the Consumers Gone?
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Should I Lighten Up?
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Learning To Be A Man, Not THE Man [Podcast]
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Laugh Off the Wall
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Time to Grow Up, Boys