Guns non violence sculpture[/caption]Carol Forsloff ---In the past 48 hours newspapers across the country have reported incidents of shootings, many of which have occurred during of domestic disputes during the past week. So as public officials and ordinary citizens debate gun control and mental illness, how would mental illness be defined and under what conditions?
The following are just a few of the gun incidents that happened between family members during the past week, as reported by the nation's newspapers:
Steven R. Johnson, age 34, allegedly shot his wife, Manya, to death, then dismembered her body and stashed the remains in a friend’s garage. St Paul, Minnesota, according to the New York Daily News.
This past week in Kentucky police reported 68-year-old Tommie Summers shot and killed 67-year-old Linda Summers and their son, 38-year-old Brian Summers., then killed himself.
In Ravenden, Arkansas Robert Shouse was arrested and charged with attempted murder after shooting at his wife's car as he followed her vehicle down a rural road.
In Gardendale, Alabama: 54-year-old Dr. Terry Greer, a local pastor, reportedly shot and killed his wife, 52-year-old Lisa Greer,
In Hayden, Idaho police reported that Daryl Clark shot and killed his wife, Tina, leaving behind a young son.
In Dallas, Texas Ferdinand Smith allegedly shot and killed his wife, Karen, as she was leaving work and is being held on a charge of murder. He is also being held on a charge of felony family violence assault after being accused of previously attacking his wife in December.
In Circleville, Ohio a man was hospitalized after shooting at his wife. He missed, then shot himself, but was lucid and talking at the hospital according to initial reports.
These were not mass shootings but rather the type of gun violence police often report around the nation. Would these shooters be classified as mentally ill according to the discussions presently taking place about gun control, when these incidents constitute the bulk of the "non-criminal" shootings, i.e. gun deaths unrelated to any other crime?
The Southern Poverty Law Center has seen an uptick in the membership of hate groups, many of whom have been found to have stashes of weapons. Would these people be classified as mentally ill?
Depression is the major mental illness around the world. It constitutes a mental illness in the psychiatric categorization of mood disorders. Would someone with a history of depression be among those restricted from having a gun under potential and existing gun laws?
While gun rights advocates point to mental illness and the media as critical areas of examination and restriction, the ambiguities in classifying those mental illness as well as the fact that many gun deaths, unrelated to other crimes, occur between people who know each other offer complex questions for those anticipating changes in gun laws.
It is indeed the devil in the details that make the issue of gun control far more complex than simply restricting gun ownership of the mentally ill or those with criminal histories.
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