Oregon Shooting - Guess why?

[MentalGiant]

Still not mentally ill, though.

Reports now coming out that he had aspergers. The vast majority of the other mass shooters were suffering from various mental illnesses as well. None were getting proper help and as I recall many had their families come out afterwards saying they were desperately trying to get them help but couldn't.

[quote='MentalGiant' pid='1069830' dateline='1443793521']

Statistically speaking, mentally ill people are no more likely to be dangerous than the average person. While I agree that we need better mental health care in our country, your laying the blame for these tragedies on mental illness is misguided and does nothing but further stigmatize the mentally ill.

No one is saying all mentally ill people are inherently dangerous, but statistically speaking, mass shooters tend to also be mentally ill. Correlation without causation? I think not. The same can't be said of all violent criminals, but certain types of violent crimes tend to be committed overwhelmingly by mentally ill individuals NOT receiving proper treatment. Mentally ill people do not function at the same capacity as people who are not mentally ill. Some may be able to function ok on their own, but most need extra help they may not seek for themselves because they do not perceive themselves to be mentally ill or feel self medication with alcohol/street drugs is enough. To suggest we step up how we treat the mentally ill to make sure they are being adequately monitored and treated is not stigmatizing them, it is protecting the interests of all parties involved (the individual and the general public). I would imagine better laws regarding mental health care and better abilities for families to get help for an individual with diminished capacity to seek help for themselves would prevent many of these types of incidents.