A recent shooting in Austin left three dead; the suspect had a history of criminal offenses and serious mental health issues. In other violent incidents, suspects had mental health problems but experts argue that these do not directly cause mass shootings. The potential solution of limiting gun access is controversial among politicians. Focus on mental illness may distract from factors more predictive of violence. Experts emphasize that while some individuals show symptoms of mental illness, it does not correlate to the act of mass shootings, which are not caused by these conditions.
No mental health system is built to catch such rare and explosive crimes, experts said. But the potential solution is one that many politicians won't have the stomach to address: limiting access to guns.
Having a mental health problem is not predictive of mass shootings. Many have symptoms of mental illness, but that's a different argument than saying that mental illness caused the mass shooting.
Violence is not a listed symptom of mental health issues, including major depression or schizophrenia, Metzl noted. In fact, there's no mental illness stereotype that directly correlates with mass shootings.
Often we tell the mental illness story because it's the most obvious or fits into our stereotypes and if we focus only on that, then we're missing all of these other factors which are much more predictive of mass shootings.
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