Gun Violence and Mental Health

It seems that after nearly every major tragedy involving gun violence in the United States, there is one key argument made by those who argue against gun control regulations - focus on assisting the mentally ill instead of blaming the gun. The purpose of this essay is to offer a counterargument to that statement, as research suggests it is not as supported by factual evidence as some suggest.

The first argument to be made is that there is a major element of hypocrisy in pendents claiming that lawmakers should focus on health care support for the mentally ill rather than gun control. There is a very strong correlation between states that have high gun violence and states that have poor availability of health care for the mentally ill.

The first thing made clear by this chart by the CDC is that those states that have the highest levels of gun violence are primarily the southern coastal states, the southern center, and the northern midwest, the clear exceptions being Texas and Florida. One of the important connections to be made here is that many of these states are poorer than the country as a whole, and may have decreased infrastructure, and this is significant because these states may have a decreased ability to provide health care to the public regardless of their management and motivation.

In the second chart we see the connection to be made. The deep south has the least available care for the mentally ill, as well as the highest gun violence in the country. This emphasized a major point in the national dialogue on gun violence and mental health. If pendents advocating that states not pass gun control regulations but rather enhance care for the mentally ill continue to make such arguments, then those states should either follow their own advice and improve mental health care or pass their own gun regulations, because in its current state the country needs to improve these systems to improve our lives.