Gun Violence and MI

[heilmania]

Am I the only one consistently feeling butthurt over the way the media portrays MI in regards to gun violence? Of course, access to/better mental healthcare in the U.S. is a piece of the no-more-mass-shootings puzzle, but the way people, especially politicians, have been talking about it is really pissing me off.

I feel like it's just adding to the stigmas attached to MI, making people think that people with MIs are violent! I have depression, anxiety and psychosis, and I've never killed anyone. I don't know about you guys, but this is really grinding my gears today. Maybe the fact that the Orlando shooter was radicalized by ISIS has something more to do with the shooting than his "being mentally ill." *eyeroll*

[water]

You are not the only one. It is skeezing me out as well. I have had no small amount of conversations about bipolar, depression, etc. with those who know NOTHING.

Everything assumption made about Orlando is also filled with anxiety. The shooter was a closet gay? The shooter was anti-AMerican? The shooter was a rage filled abusive husband?

What it all comes down to for me: The shooter was an ASSHOLE!!!! He stayed in the bathroom with injured and alive people and then shot and killed some of them later. He was a psychopath. I don't mean to be an armchair pdoc but.....this horrific event reminds me somewhat of the shooting in the church where the shooter sat in a PRAYER MEETING before killing everyone there.

Of course they people are mentally ill. But it doesn't matter. 

The takeaway for me is: BAN ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN AUTOMATIC RIFLES.

Everyone can keep their damn handguns for ';protection' - though many endup in the hands of kids who accidentally shoot themselves.

Why do we need automatic rifles????They are not used to shoot deer, they are not used for self defense. They are used for mass murder. 

[jt07]

The shooter hated gays and that was the main reason. The terror stuff was tacked on at the end because in the call he made to authorities during the rampage he pledged allegiance to several opposing terror groups which shows he didn't even know which ones were which.

I agree with water. Get rid of the assault rifles. I mean, they even have "assault" in their name. Until we come to terms with getting rid of assault weapons, we will only see more of this.

[melissaw72]

Just want to agree with all posts above.  I would write more but this stuff stresses me out.  Even to write about. It is the assumptions that get to me. And then it is spread all over media like that.

[Southern Discomfort]

I made a thread similar to this a few days ago. My opinion on this matter can be summed up with watching John Oliver's piece on mental health; if you're going to blame mental health because of gun violence, fucking improve mental health services then! As he pointed out there's some god awful services for vulnerable people in the country which is supposed to be the most richest in the world.

[heilmania]

I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing this! Thinking of writing an open letter to news stations.

I agree that these guns totally need to be banned. It also took a Philadelphia journalist a total of seven minutes to buy an AR-15. The ease of access makes me uneasy.

@Southern Discomfort, sorry for missing your post! I should have checked around more before posting, but I'm really pissed off.

I also agree that mental-health services need to be improved/made accessible! It shouldn't take three weeks to get in to see a psychiatrist (for the first time), but it takes seven minutes to get a gun. In addition, I shouldn't have to pay $40 just to SEE MY SHRINK even WITH really good insurance! The inaccessibility of mental-health care is a biggie.

[water]

Quote

 

Since the Orlando massacre early Sunday morning, pro-gun pundits have come out in force to argue that the weapon used in the attack is not an assault rifle. The gun lobby prefers to call these weapons "modern sporting rifles," euphemistic ammo it can fire in an ongoing semantic debate. But make no mistake: What the Orlando attacker used was a weapon of war. It was designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Witness this harrowing audio captured by a bystander outside the Pulse nightclub in which Omar Mateen fires 24 shots in 9 seconds.

 

 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/assault-rifle-used-by-orlando-mass-shooter

[jt07]

55 minutes ago, sbdivemaster said:

BINGO!!

You are aware that automatic rifles are already banned, yes?  You are aware the perpetrator was not using an automatic rifle, yes?

Of the following pictures, please identify the "assault weapon":

 

 

What the hell is that picture supposed to prove? Assault weapons are not categorized on their looks. They are categorized on whether they are fully or semi automatic and the caliber of ammo they use. Yes, fully automatic weapons are already banned, but the semiautomatic ones persist and are the ones used in the mass shootings.

[Southern Discomfort]

He was using a semi automatic.

[dazed and confused]

If mental illness and violence and mass shootings etc are connected then how come these shootings only happen predominantly in the US and not the rest of the world? 

[water]

I believe most of the world bans the public from walking in the store and coming out with a semisemi automatic weapons.

[melissaw72]

3 hours ago, Southern Discomfort said:

I made a thread similar to this a few days ago. My opinion on this matter can be summed up with watching John Oliver's piece on mental health; if you're going to blame mental health because of gun violence, fucking improve mental health services then! As he pointed out there's some god awful services for vulnerable people in the country which is supposed to be the most richest in the world.

Do you have a link to John Oliver's piece on mental health ... I am interested in watching it.  Is it on you tube?

[Southern Discomfort]

25 minutes ago, melissaw72 said:

Do you have a link to John Oliver's piece on mental health ... I am interested in watching it.  Is it on you tube?

Here it is.

 

[melissaw72]

14 minutes ago, Southern Discomfort said:

Here it is.

 

Thank you for posting the link!  I appreciate it.  I love watching John Oliver because he just says it as it is.   I think John Oliver's last sentence wrapped it well (at 11:16).

[heilmania]

I may not be as eloquent as John Oliver (I also don't have a team of writers), but I wrote this and sent it to the Huffington Post. I will try to find more news outlets to send it to:

In a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article, journalist Helen Ubiñas described the process she went through to buy an AR-15 in Philadelphia. It took her seven minutes flat to get her hands on a semi-automatic rifle.

(http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/helen_ubinas/20160614_Ubinas__I_bought_an_AR-15_semi-automatic_rifle_in_Philly_in_7_minutes.html?mobi=true)

 

In the wake of the Orlando shooting, many people have been talking about mental illness. At first, I thought, “Oh, thank goodness! We’re going to talk about the state of mental-health care in the U.S.” Then, it started: the insulting generalizations and the obvious lack of knowledge about mental illnesses. Watching television the past couple days has been irritating at best.

 

Sadly, I am not surprised. This happens every time there is a mass shooting.  We want answers: Why did the shooter do this? What drove them to kill? Often, we begin pointing to mental illness, which is certainly a piece of the stopping-mass-shootings puzzle, but mental illness is not the only piece. But, if we are going to talk about mental health, let’s actually talk about mental health rather than labeling the shooter as mentally ill and moving on, waiting for the next massacre to materialize.

 

I have three distinct mental illnesses: major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and auditory hallucinations (psychosis). I lead a productive and positive life, working at a nonprofit organization, volunteering in my community, and caring for two cats and a turtle (plus my husband). I have never killed anyone, and neither have most people with mental illnesses- in fact, people with mental illnesses are 10 times more likely to have violence perpetrated against them than the general population, and only 3-5% of violent crimes can be attributed to individuals with mental illness.

(https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/myths-facts/)

 

So, let’s not paint everyone with mental illness with the same brush. Instead, let’s learn more about mental-health issues. Let’s talk about how difficult it is to obtain quality mental-health services in the U.S. Due to the fact that a psychiatrist is a “specialist” (according to my insurance), I am forced to pay $40 every time I need mental-health care. I don’t always have $40. I don’t always have the $30 it takes to refill all my prescriptions, either, but I don’t have a choice. This month, prescriptions and doctor’s appointments came before food. When attempting to make an initial appointment with a psychiatrist, it often takes over a month to get in to see them. They already have a full schedule of patients, and scheduling a 15-minute appointment takes about a month. Once you are a patient, things are easier, but that initial point of contact is frustrating and can lead to terrible mental-health outcomes.

 

It shouldn’t take a month to see a psychiatrist but seven minutes to purchase an assault rifle, and we can’t afford to continue pointing at mental illness every time something like this happens. The facts outweigh the rhetoric. Let’s not add to the stigmas surrounding mental illnesses, but instead talk about the real problem: guns.

[snarkygirl]

I'm staying out of this for the most part, but like mental illness I don't like mislabels. I saw someone mention assault rifles should be banned. True assault rifles are banned and not available to citizens. The AR-15 is not an assault rifle. The AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle after the firm who designed it. It doesn't meet the definition of an assault rifle at all. They are completely different. Anyway. It's one round per trigger pull. It's the semi-automatic nature and larger clip, which is optional is what people are afraid of but, many rifles are semi-automatic and have optional large clips, like 50 rounds. So, AR-15 looks scary so it makes it the choice. It doesn't functionally do anything other guns don't do. Nor does it do anything special. It is modeled to look a certain way. It is not an assault rifle though. It's a rifle. I'm not getting into a debate, but as an educated gun owner, that's like calling OCD the same as bipolar.

Edited June 15, 2016 by snarkygirl

[Southern Discomfort]

24 minutes ago, melissaw72 said:

Thank you for posting the link!  I appreciate it.  I love watching John Oliver because he just says it as it is.   I think John Oliver's last sentence wrapped it well (at 11:16).

Don't mention it. Last Week Tonight has become a staple of my weekly tv viewing, he talks so much sense.

[melissaw72]

2 hours ago, snarkygirl said:

I'm staying out of this for the most part, but like mental illness I don't like mislabels. I saw someone mention assault rifles should be banned. True assault rifles are banned and not available to citizens. The AR-15 is not an assault rifle. The AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle after the firm who designed it. It doesn't meet the definition of an assault rifle at all. They are completely different. Anyway. It's one round per trigger pull. It's the semi-automatic nature and larger clip, which is optional is what people are afraid of but, many rifles are semi-automatic and have optional large clips, like 50 rounds. So, AR-15 looks scary so it makes it the choice. It doesn't functionally do anything other guns don't do. Nor does it do anything special. It is modeled to look a certain way. It is not an assault rifle though. It's a rifle. I'm not getting into a debate, but as an educated gun owner, that's like calling OCD the same as bipolar.

Thanks for the post ... Great points!

[dancesintherain]

 

heilmania, your letter is phenomenal and I'd disagree with the assertion about not being eloquent.  (Though I do understand if the point is solely in comparison to someone like John Oliver, that's a harder call to make.)

I recently saw a post by satirist John Borowitz that if we're not going to change our laws with respect to weapons that can kill 50 people and injure another 50 in such a short period of time, why don't we make joining the military and serving in Afghanistan (solely) for two years a pre-requisite. 

Although I recognize it's a little excessive...I completely understand the sentiment. 

[jt07]

2 hours ago, snarkygirl said:

I'm staying out of this for the most part, but like mental illness I don't like mislabels. I saw someone mention assault rifles should be banned. True assault rifles are banned and not available to citizens. The AR-15 is not an assault rifle. The AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle after the firm who designed it. It doesn't meet the definition of an assault rifle at all. They are completely different. Anyway. It's one round per trigger pull. It's the semi-automatic nature and larger clip, which is optional is what people are afraid of but, many rifles are semi-automatic and have optional large clips, like 50 rounds. So, AR-15 looks scary so it makes it the choice. It doesn't functionally do anything other guns don't do. Nor does it do anything special. It is modeled to look a certain way. It is not an assault rifle though. It's a rifle. I'm not getting into a debate, but as an educated gun owner, that's like calling OCD the same as bipolar.

Look, I don't care what you want to call them. That is a red herring, and has nothing to do with how lethal these guns are. They are in fact semi-automatic rifles and they need to be banned. Just look at the number of mass shootings they are used in. Anyone denying that these weapons are at the heart of the problem just has their head in the sand.