The real problem of violence is NOT mental illness. The real problems are ANGER and ACCESS TO GUNS.

February 25, 2018 GlenAnderson Conflict Resolution (Also see Nonviolence), Criminal Justice (Also see Death Penalty), Examples of Parallax Views, Guns, Organizing & Activism (Also see Nonviolence, Outreach), Outreach, Framing/Reframing (Also see Organizing & Activism) 0

When mass shootings occur, many politicians try to shift attention away from the gun and blame the shooter for mental illness.  Yes, our society should provide more adequate funding and services for mental health.  But the problem is not “mental illness” per se.  The problem is ANGER.  Our society needs to explore and implement a wide variety of ways to reduce anger throughout our society.

Consider this article about ANGER:  http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/04/anger_causes_violence_treat_it_rather_than_mental_illness_to_stop_mass_murder.html

Do not let gun supporters avoid responsibility for the too-easy access to guns.  They want to blame mentally ill persons.  Instead, we must reduce access to guns, so consider this article about ACCESS TO GUNS:
https://www.thenation.com/article/dont-blame-the-mentally-ill-blame-the-guns/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly%2002232018&utm_term=weekly

Thoughtful, humane people need to SHIFT THE PUBLIC CONVERSATION away from blaming mentally ill persons to focusing on the rampant ANGER in our society and the EASY ACCESS TO GUNS that allow shootings to occur.

About GlenAnderson 1437 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org