Elliot Rodger and the NRA myth: How the gun lobby scapegoats mental illness

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http://www.salon.com/2014/05/28/elliot_rodger_and_the_nra_myth_how_the_gun_lobby_scapegoats_mental_illness/



Elliot Rodger’s Santa Barbara rampage that killed seven people (including the gunman) is just one of a series in the United States over the last two months. There was Frazier Glenn Cross’ shooting that left three dead at a Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas; Ivan Lopez’s fatal shooting of four (including himself) in Fort Hood, Texas (the second such incident Fort Hood has experienced in the last five years); and Geddy Kramer’s attack on a FedEx building in Kennesaw, Georgia, that left six wounded and the gunman dead.

However, rather than emphasize the crisis of guns in America, the media has done just what the National Rifle Association wants: deemphasize the role of weapons in these massacres and focus instead on a different, more convenient scapegoat, mental illness. After Rodger’s killings, CBS immediately featured Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, who pointed to the “obvious mental illness that manifested itself in this tragedy.” Roll Call highlighted a bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., that would lower the standard needed to forcibly commit the mentally ill from presenting an imminent danger to simply needing treatment, with not a single word questioning if mental illness actually leads to violence. Even tabloid Radar Online managed to get in on the action, with a headline touting “UCSB Shooter Elliot Rodger Refused His Psychiatric Medicines, His Parents Now in Hiding.”

Of course, mental illness shouldn’t be ignored. But it is often discussed in a way that is dishonest and inaccurate in the context of mass shootings. And it reinforces an effort to redirect the conversation away from the scourge of guns and their effect on our culture.

Notably, the focus on mental health enjoys broad support from an otherwise divided media. Mother Jones identified mental illness (a category that includes such routine diagnoses as ADHD) as a “crucial factor” in its otherwise laudable mass shootings map, lamenting that “most media have failed to connect the dots with regard to mental health.” A Wall Street Journal piece in the wake of Aaron Alexis’ September 2013 Navy Yard shooting that left 13 dead was headlined “Tough Questions on Mental Illness and Mass Shootings,” then proceeded with the curious decision not to ask any.

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1. Trigger-happy crazy people

It is very strange that those who terrorize and kill people in the United States are immediately termed mentally deranged.

Similar reports are surfacing about Elliot Rodger, who killed six and injured as many in California last week.

His aunt has reportedly condemned the gun laws in the US. This kind of condemnation always surfaces only when a massacre takes place and it dies down soon after, until another brutal killing takes place. Buying a gun in the land of the free is as easy as buying a packet of chewing gum. It is learned that in a video titled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution” uploaded to YouTube the day before the massacre, the suspect has chillingly foretold about the killings. He also said, “I will get great pleasure in slaughtering all of you.” When will the US lawmakers seriously think of saving the lives of innocent citizens, from such trigger-happy crazy people, by introducing strict gun laws?

http://www.arabnews.com/news/577471

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