Mental health screenings the straw man in the gun debate

Gun sculpture

While politicians debate gun control, many agree on mental health screenings as prerequisite for owning a gun, but that is the straw man in the matter of guns and how they are used in the United States.

It is easy to point to the mental health problems of some of the mass shooters as the area of agreement for those wanting to control guns and those wanting to control the behavior that leads to violence. The truth, however, is that most gun deaths are not caused by mentally deranged individuals at all. Instead gun deaths occur primarily as a result of an emotional outburst and the ability to use a gun because one is readily available in the home.

So much for protecting the community, as it turns out the community has to pay to prosecute these crimes or to prove they are crimes in the first place. And the rest of us have to worry about the prattle about the Second Amendment, that bit of prose that is part of a Constitution never meant to be permanent and inviolate for the life of any country. But that's for another article, and right now the issue is gun deaths and why mental health screenings are not the central issue.  In other words, guns kill people. If they weren't readily available, fewer people would die.

A research study in 1996 noted gun deaths to be the eighth leading cause of death in the United States. The CDC, using statistics from 1993 through 1998, showed gun-related injuries to be the second leading cause of injury-related death in the United States. Current statistics show guns to be the seventh leading cause of death. Suicide is excluded from this statistic, as the fifth leading cause of death;  however, it should be noted that a significant number of people kill themselves with guns.

The rate of private gun ownership in the United States is 88.8² firearms per 100 people, with the United States having the highest rate of per capita gun ownership in the world.

This means that most Americans own guns. And the Southern Medical Association reports that having a gun in the house does not increase personal safety but in fact increases the likelihood of a gun being used to kill or increase the risks of violence. This is what the Association observes in an article about gun violence and personal safety: "The most common cause of deaths occurring at homes where guns are present, by far, is suicide. Many of these self-inflicted gunshot wounds appear to be impulsive acts by people without previous evidence of mental illness. Guns in the home are also associated with a fivefold increase in the rate of intimate partner homicide, as well as an increased risk of injuries and death to children."

Guns kill people. Mental health screenings are meant to assess those most at risk for using a gun, yet most gun deaths are domestic or are used in suicides. Those who point to mental health problems as the principal problem in the use of guns in the United States do so in order to avoid the critical issue, the number of guns, the availability of them, as the principal reason for their use and for the violence related to the gun.