TRUMP CALLS MASS SHOOTERS ‘DERANGED’: IS MENTAL HEALTH REALLY TO BLAME?

The United States is currently facing such a devastating crisis, not because of money, debt, racism, or even politics, but because of the number of mass murders happening recently. A huge mass murder happened not too long ago, where a man started shooting concert goers from his hotel room in Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, a lot of people died and the mass murderer committed suicide as well.
He killed more than 50 people and injured more than 500. United States President Donald Trump even referred to the murderer as a ‘sick demented man’. Unfortunately, just a few months later, a similar incident happened, this time it is in a small church in Texas. Some people are blaming mental health problems to be the reason why people are actually doing this, but experts believe that it is beyond that and blames the gun control in the United States.

TEXAS MASS SHOOTING

It seemed to be just a normal Sunday in a small town in South Texas until a man who was dressed in black-tactical style arrived in the church armed with an assault rifle and suddenly open fired. He managed to end the lives of 26 people and have injured 20 more others. According to their governor, this has got to be the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history where people from the ages of 5 to 72 died. The authorities didn’t immediately identify the mass murderer that night but one U.S. official and one law enforcer gave the name Devin Kelley to the Associated Press but they weren’t really authorized to discuss any more information regarding the matter, except for the fact that Kelley was said to be from a San Antonio suburb and wasn’t exactly linked or a part of any terrorist groups.

But some investigators have looked into his social media accounts where he posted an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon. However, the regional director of the Texas Department of Safety Freeman Martin said that the gunman actually crossed the street where he started firing at the church. Joe D. Tackitt Jr, the Wilson County Sheriff, there was just no way anyone could escape the church once the shooting started. “You got your pews on either side. He just walked down the center aisle, turned around and my understanding was shooting on his way back out. It’s unbelievable to see children, men, and women, laying there. Defenseless people, I guess it was seeing the children that were killed it’s one thing to see an adult but to see a 5-year-old.”

Regardless of how the gunman managed to kill these many people, he still did and this is something a lot of Americans are starting to worry about.

TRUMP’S THOUGHTS ON THE INCIDENT

The day after the incident, United States president Donald Trump released a statement while in a press conference in Japan regarding the Texas mass murder. Then again, he actually blamed mental illness for it. This is because the said gunman, David Kelley, escaped a mental health facility before the Air Force could arrest him for beating his wife and baby back in 2012. Just like some people, the president is pointing at mental illness for this incident, however, experts believe that it is definitely much more than that and in a way, the government could prevent this from happening again if they focus on the gun control within the country.

Trump stated that “Mental health is your problem here. This was a very very, based on preliminary reports, this was a very deranged individual, a lot of problems over a long period of time, we have a lot of mental problems in our country as do other countries.”

EXPERTS STILL BLAME GUNS

People seem to be pointing to mental health when incidents like this happen, however, experts believe that not everyone who has a mental illness is capable of doing such things. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “Most people with mental illness are not violent, and only 3 to 5 percent of these acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness.”

A Duke University professor of psychiatry believes that people who have anger issues are most likely to be more violent if not controlled but not the ones who are suffering from mental illness such as depression. In a recent study, 1.5 percent of people in America are living with impulsive anger and this is not a mental illness, the fact that they are able to carry a gun and own more than one is the one that should be looked at. Unfortunate, the Trump administration doesn’t seem to even glance at the possibility of gun control when it comes to incidents like these.