The Medicalization of Mental Illness in Gun Violence
By Carolyn C. Meltzer, MD

On January 6, 2017, a young man pulled a semiautomatic handgun from his checked baggage and shot and killed several passengers in the Fort Lauderdale airport. In the days following the incident, information about erratic behavior and his prior involvement in incidents of domestic abuse emerged.
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Particularly since Sandy Hook in 2012, public and political attention has focused heavily on mental health reporting. Despite stark disagreements on the gun control, public acceptance of restricting gun access to those with mental health conditions is strong and has resulted in registering people with known psychiatric illness in the national background check system (Kangas and Calver 2014). Initial efforts focused on those involuntarily committed and/or ruled mentally incompetent by the courts, yet several states have pushed to include people voluntarily seeking mental health treatment. Unintended consequences of mental health background checks may include discouraging individuals from seeking psychiatric treatment based on fear of breach of confidentiality or restriction of rights.
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A greater understanding of the roles and interplay of such factors as mental health, substance abuse, past displays of violence, social stress, and availability of a firearm could be useful in developing evidence-based gun safety policies. Yet federal research into the many variables associated with gun-related injuries is limited by a 1996 Congressional action barring the CDC and NIH from promoting gun control and slashing funds for the CDC firearm injury prevention program. Restricting resources to an important public health matter is both ethically problematic and may discourage young scientists from focusing on an area of study for which no significant funding exists.
References
Follman M, Aronsen G, Pan D. US Mass Shootings, 1982-2016: Data from Mother Jones’ Investigation. Sept. 24, 2016 found here (accessed January 8, 2017).
Kangas JL, Calvert JD. Ethical Issues in Mental Health Background Checks for Firearm Ownership. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 2014;45(1):76-83.
Mental Illness and Violence. Harvard Mental Health Letter. Volume 27, no. 27, January 2011.
Wintemute GJ, Betz ME, Ranney ML. Yes, You Can: Physicians, Patients and Firearms. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2016 165(3): 205-213.
Glied S, Frank RG. Mental Illness and Violence: Lessons From the Evidence. American Journal of Public Health 2014, Vol. 104, No. 2, pp. e5-e6.
Metzl JM, MacLeish KT. Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms. American Journal of Public Health 2015;105(2): 240-249
Want to cite this post?
Meltzer, C. (2017). The Medicalization of Mental Illness in Gun Violence. The Neuroethics Blog. Retrieved on , from http://www.theneuroethicsblog.com/2017/01/the-medicalization-of-mental-illness-in_13.html
Meltzer, C. (2017). The Medicalization of Mental Illness in Gun Violence. The Neuroethics Blog. Retrieved on , from http://www.theneuroethicsblog.com/2017/01/the-medicalization-of-mental-illness-in_13.html