Can I just say as someone who has some significant interest and investment in the field of mental health how much it infuriates me when conservatives try to blame mass shootings on mental health in the most blasé way possible?
Like, Ok, yes, these people are quite possibly mentally unbalanced. What are you politicians going to do about that now that you've publicly admitted it? Are you going to fund more and better mental health programs so that more people can have access to the kind of care they need? Are we going to start mental health education initiatives so fewer Americans will view mental health programs with the kind of incredulity that I view new age medicine?
Oh, are you going to do exactly dick?
Ok, then maybe shut the fuck up, because we've identified a precipitating element to this utter travesty and we are prepared to actually do something about it.
The least they could do is accidentally help mentally unwell people in this country if they're going to use them as a scapegoat to cling to their precious guns. If they want to continue to treat it with all the sophistication and sensitivity of someone effectively going, "Have we looked into if the shooter was hexed by a witch yet? Has anyone thought of that?" Then they can fuck directly off. Mental health is not some black magic that only conveniently exists when you need something to blame murders on you are complicit with by virtue of your cowardly inaction. It's an ongoing, serious subject that many people struggle their entire lives with. Which, by the way, is helped not at all by a stigma in popular culture being formed around the idea that people with mental health disorders have the potential to spontaneously transform into psycho killers. Fuck you very much, Republicans.