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While many have bought into the simplistic idea that availability of firearms is the cause of\u00a0mass shootings, a number of experts have pointed out some uncomfortable truths. The \u2018elephant in the room’ is being overlooked by our media, despite the fact it’s directly linked to the rise in mass shootings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n- While many have bought into the simplistic idea that availability of firearms is the cause of mass shootings, a number of experts have pointed out a more uncomfortable truth, which is that mass shootings are far more likely the result of how we’ve been mistreating mental illness, depression and behavioral problems<\/span><\/li>\n
- Gun control legislation has shown that law-abiding Americans who own guns are not the problem, because the more gun control laws that have been passed, the more mass shootings have occurred<\/span><\/li>\n
- 97.8 percent of mass shootings occur in “gun-free zones,” as the perpetrators know legally armed citizens won’t be there to stop them<\/span><\/li>\n
- Depression per se rarely results in violence. Only after\u00a0antidepressants\u00a0became commonplace did mass shootings really take off, and many mass shooters have been shown to be on antidepressants<\/span><\/li>\n
- Antidepressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are well-known for their ability to cause suicidal and homicidal ideation and violence<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
While many have bought into the simplistic idea that availability of firearms is the cause of mass shootings, a number of experts have pointed out a more uncomfortable truth, which is that mass shootings are far more likely the result of how we’ve been mistreating mental illness, depression and behavioral problems.<\/p>\n
An article written by Molly Carter, initially published on ammo.com at an unknown date1<\/span>\u00a0and subsequently republished by The Libertarian Institute in May 2019,2<\/span>\u00a0and psychreg.org in late January 2021,3<\/span>\u00a0noted:<\/p>\n\n“According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a mass murder occurs when at least four people are murdered, not including the shooter \u2026 during a single incident \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nSeemingly every time a\u00a0mass shooting\u00a0occurs \u2026 the anti-gun media and politicians have a knee-jerk response \u2014 they blame the tragedy solely on the tool used, namely firearms, and focus all of their proposed \u2018solutions’ on more laws, ignoring that the murderer already broke numerous laws when they committed their atrocity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nFacts matter when addressing such an emotionally charged topic, and more gun control legislation has shown that law-abiding Americans who own guns are NOT the problem. Consider the following: The more gun control laws that are passed, the more mass murders have occurred.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nWhether or not this is correlation or causation is debatable. What is not debatable is that this sick phenomenon of mass murderers targeting \u2018gun-free zones,’ where they know civilian carry isn’t available to law-abiding Americans, is happening.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nAccording to the Crime Prevention Research Center,4<\/span>\u00a097.8 percent of public shootings occur in \u2018gun-free zones’ \u2013 and \u2018gun-free zones’ are the epitome of the core philosophical tenet of gun control, that laws are all the defense one needs against violence \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\nThis debate leads them away from the elephant in the room and one of the real issues behind mass shootings \u2014 mental health and prescription drugs.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nIgnoring what’s going on in the heads of these psychopaths not only allows mass shootings to continue, it leads to misguided gun control laws that violate the Second Amendment and negate the rights of law-abiding U.S. citizens.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nAs Jeff Snyder put it in The Washington Times: \u2018But to ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow.'”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe Elephant in the Room: Antidepressants<\/h2>\n
Thoughts, emotions and a variety of environmental factors play into the manifestation of violence, but mental illness by itself cannot account for the massive rise in mass murder \u2014 unless you include antidepressants in the equation. Yet even when mental health does enter the mass shooter discussion, the issue of antidepressants, specifically, is rarely mentioned.<\/p>\n
The fact is, depression per se rarely results in violence. Only after antidepressants became commonplace did mass shootings take off, and many mass shooters have been shown to be on antidepressants.<\/p>\n
Prozac, released in 1987, was the first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) to be approved for depression and anxiety. Only two years earlier, direct-to-consumer advertising had been legalized. In the mid-1990s, the Food and Drug Administration loosened regulations, direct-to-consumer ads for SSRIs exploded and, with it, prescriptions for SSRIs.<\/p>\n
In 1989, just two years after Prozac came to market, Joseph Wesbecker shot 20 of his coworkers, killing nine. He had been on Prozac for one month, and the survivors of the drug-induced attack sued Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac. Since then, antidepressant use and mass shootings have both risen, more or less in tandem.<\/p>\n
In the two decades between 1988 and 2008, antidepressant use in the U.S. rose by 400 percent,5<\/span>\u00a0and by 2010, 11 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 12 were on an antidepressant prescription.6<\/span><\/p>\nIn 1982, pre-Prozac, there was one mass shooting in the U.S.7<\/span>\u00a0In 1984, there were two incidents and in 1986 \u2014 the year Prozac was released \u2014 there was one. One to three mass shootings per year remained the norm up until 1999, when it jumped to five.<\/p>\nHow can we possibly ignore the connection between rampant use of drugs known to directly cause violent behavior and the rise in mass shootings?<\/p>\n
Another jump took place in 2012, when there were seven mass shootings. And while the annual count has gone up and down from year to year, there’s been a clear trend of an increased number of mass shootings post-2012. Over time, mass shootings have also gotten larger, with more people getting injured or killed per incident.<\/p>\n
How can we possibly ignore the connection between rampant use of drugs known to directly cause violent behavior and the rise in mass shootings? Suicidal ideation, violence and homicidal ideation are all known side effects of these drugs. Sometimes, the drugs disrupt brain function so dramatically the perpetrator can’t even remember what they did.<\/p>\n
For example, in 2001, a 16-year-old high schooler was prescribed Effexor, starting off at 40 milligrams and moving up to 300 mg over the course of three weeks. On the first day of taking a 300-mg dose, the boy woke up with a headache, decided to skip school and went back to bed.<\/p>\n
Some time later, he got up, took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage at gunpoint. He later claimed he had no recollection of anything that happened after he went back to bed that morning.9<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ignatius-piazza-front-sight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/GettyImages-3123184-515x344.jpg\")
MIAMI, FL – MARCH 23: A bottle of anti-depressant pills named Fluoxetine are shown March 23, 2004 photographed in Miami, Florida. The Food and Drug Administration asked makers of popular anti-depressants to add or strengthen suicide-related warnings on their labels as well as the possibility of worsening depression especially at the beginning of treatment or when the doses are increased or decreased. (Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n
In one review of 484 drugs in the FDA’s database, 31 were found to account for 78.8 percent of all cases of violence against others, and 11 of those drugs were antidepressants. (Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Risks Are Clear<\/h2>\n
The risks of psychiatric disturbances are so clear, ever since mid-October 2004, all antidepressants in the U.S. must include a black box warning that the drug can cause suicidal thoughts and behaviors, especially in those younger than 25, and that:10<\/span><\/p>\n\n“Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility (aggressiveness), impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder as well as for other indications, both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nSSRIs can also cause emotional blunting and detachment, such that patients report “not feeling” or “not caring” about anything or anyone, as well as psychosis and hallucinations. All of these side effects can contribute to someone acting out an unthinkable violent crime.<\/p>\n
In one review11<\/span>,12<\/span>\u00a0of 484 drugs in the FDA’s database, 31 were found to account for 78.8 percent of all cases of violence against others, and 11 of those drugs were antidepressants.<\/p>\nThe researchers concluded that violence against others was a “genuine and serious adverse drug event” and that of the drugs analyzed, SSRI antidepressants and the smoking cessation medication, varenicline (Chantix), had the strongest associations. The top-five most dangerous SSRIs were:13<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Fluoxetine (Prozac), which increased aggressive behavior 10.9 times<\/li>\n
- Paroxetine (Paxil), which increased violent behavior 10.3 times<\/li>\n
- Fluvoxamine (Luvox), which increased violent behavior 8.4 times<\/li>\n
- Venlafaxine (Effexor), which increased violent behavior 8.3 times<\/li>\n
- Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq), which increased violent behavior 7.9 times<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Depression Is Vastly Overdiagnosed<\/h2>\n
In her article, Carter also reviewed the clinical determinants for a diagnosis of clinical depression warranting medication. To qualify, you must experience five or more of the following symptoms, most of the day, every day, for two weeks or more, and the symptoms must be severe enough to interfere with normal everyday functioning:14<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Sadness<\/li>\n
- Feeling hopeless<\/li>\n
- Feeling helpless<\/li>\n
- Feeling guilty<\/li>\n
- Fatigue<\/li>\n
- Loss of interest in hobbies<\/li>\n
- Restlessness<\/li>\n
- Abnormal sleep patterns, whether sleeping too much or not enough<\/li>\n
- Thoughts of death or suicide<\/li>\n
- Anxiety<\/li>\n
- \u00a0Feeling worthless<\/li>\n
- Feeling ’empty’<\/li>\n
- Irritable<\/li>\n
- Lack of energy<\/li>\n
- \u00a0Slow talking and moving<\/li>\n
- Trouble concentrating<\/li>\n
- Abnormal weight changes, either eating too much or having no appetite<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The reality is that a majority of patients who receive a depression diagnosis and subsequent prescription for an antidepressant do not, in fact, qualify. In one study,15<\/span>\u00a0only 38.4 percent actually met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria, and among older adults, that ratio was even lower. Only 14.3 percent of those aged 65 and older met the diagnostic criteria. According to the authors:16<\/span><\/p>\n\n“Participants who did not meet the 12-month MDE criteria reported less distress and impairment in role functioning and used fewer services. A majority of both groups, however, were prescribed and used psychiatric medications.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nConclusion: Depression overdiagnosis and overtreatment is common in community settings in the USA. There is a need for improved targeting of diagnosis and treatments of depression and other mental disorders in these settings.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/a><\/p>\nWhat Role Might War Games Play?<\/h2>\n
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