The only time mental illness is spoken about in the political sphere is when there are mass shootings at colleges, churches, or movie theaters. And I can definitely see why it can be such an easy scapegoat. To society, people who suffer from mental illness are crazy, unstable, dangerous, and other charming adjectives of the like. However, having a mental illness does not make someone any more susceptible to committing violent crimes.
Depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder are all common mental illnesses that are much more likely to cause someone to self-harm than hurt anyone else. Of course, there are various other mental illnesses that receive even more stigma that I have not named in an effort to be brief, but essentially mental illness is used as an easy way to dismiss the growth in mass shootings over the past decade or so. In reality, the people who are committing such violent crimes are more likely to just be assholes rather than mentally ill. And yes, there is a huge difference.
These sweeping generalizations not only place further negative stigma on those who actually do suffer from mental illness, but it also neglects to address a more concrete causation. Instead of focusing on the mindset that this country has, as a whole, towards guns, the media and politicians prefer to place blame on something they both don’t understand or care about.