Why is it that we only talk about mental health issues in the wake of a tragedy? The recent school shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon has sparked numerous discussions across the country regarding gun control in the U.S and mental illness as a factor in violence. Politicians are quick to blame mental illness when someone commits a brutal act, but is this right? Are they avoiding the question that everyone seems to be asking: should our gun control laws be stricter?

According to propublica.org, a study conducted in 2001 looked at 34 adolescent mass murderers who were all male. Only 23% of these men studied had any documented psychiatric history, which means 3 out of 4 did not. Most of these men had a history of problems with substance abuse, had been victims of bullying or had been described as a loner. Mental health issues made up of the smallest fraction of these murderers.

While we do need to remove the violent stigma that mental health has attached to it, it is not the only problem we face in this dilemma. No matter how many mental health reforms our government or politicians propose, that will not solve the gun problem we have in this country. Like the study stated above, most of the men did not have a history of mental health issues and easily got their hands on guns. Most politicians and presidential candidates tend to divert gun control problems away during these times and try to focus on so-called mental health issues they think our country has.

The term “mental illness” is a complex one. Let’s not forget that back in the 80’s homosexuality was listed as a mental illness. Jeffrey Swanson, a medical sociologist and psychology professor at Duke University, studied more than 10,000 individuals over one year. Some of these people were deemed mentally ill while others were perfectly “normal.” Swanson found that having a serious mental illness was a risk factor for violence, but in only 4% of the cases. Like the study analyzed above, Jeffrey Swanson found that the biggest factors that contributed to violence were if the abuser was a poor male who was abusing alcohol or drugs. These three factors combined could predict violence even without any signs of mental illness. Swanson concluded that there was an extremely low correlation to violence and mental illness, although it was possible in serious cases of extreme mental illness.

So why are we deeming all mentally ill people as dangerous? While the concern over mentally ill citizens with firearms is understandable, the media should not jump to conclusions about people who commit violent acts being “disturbed” or “psychotic”. We as a unified country need to stand together and extinguish this stigma surrounding mental illness and focus on the real problems we have in this country. Stricter gun laws and more extensive background checks on past misdemeanors and abusive tendencies are what our country needs to enforce if we want to live in a safer world.

Compared to other countries, the United States falls far behind in gun control laws. In 2011, the United Kingdom had only 0.07 gun homicides for every 100,000 people while the U.S had 3 for every 100,000. The U.K has much stricter laws and require Firearm or Shotgun Certificates for people who own guns. In Canada, there is actually no legal right to own guns. People who wish to own guns have to go through safety training and have a mandatory license. The process to own a gun in Canada takes up to 60 days because it is such an extensive procedure. You must have a third-party reference and pass a background check that involves looking into mental health issues, criminal and addiction histories.

Countries like the U.K and Canada have stricter gun laws and therefore have less gun related violence. People have mental health issues all over the world but the countries with more severe firearm laws have less homicides and gun related deaths. As a country, we need to stop changing the subject when a tragedies like what happened Umpqua Community College occur. We need to fight the stigma that mental health has and focus on what our country really needs. Let’s stand together as a country and fight for what’s right.