#firearms

Jun 27, 2018

OPINION-ESSAY: Repeal the Dickey Amendment to Address Polarization Surrounding Firearms in the Unite

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Forces against the funding blockade put in place by the Dickey Amendment in 1996 have grown more vocal over recent years. After two decades of relative silence, many of the nation’s leading public health organizations, medical groups, and research universities have now come out against the research ban. Meanwhile, each successive mass shooting highlights the untenable tensions between public demand for expert knowledge to prevent gun death o

Jun 26, 2018

ARTICLE: Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Jonathan M. Metzl MD, PhD, and Kenneth T. MacLeish PhD Four assumptions frequently arise in the aftermath of mass shootings in the United States: (1) that mental illness causes gun violence, (2) that psychiatric diagnosis can predict gun crime, (3) that shootings represent the deranged acts of mentally ill loners, and (4) that gun control “won’t prevent” another Newtown (Connecticut school mass shooting). Each of these statements is certain

May 25, 2018

ARTICLE: Stop Using Psychiatry to Sell Guns

It’s enough to make a psychiatrist cringe. Speaking just days after a 17-year-old student killed eight classmates and two teachers at Santa Fe High School in Texas, incoming National Rifle Association (NRA) president Oliver North blamed mass shootings on a “culture of violence” in which many young boys have “been on Ritalin” since early childhood. Dan Patrick, the pro-gun Lt. Governor of Texas, then invoked the pathologies of culture while laying culpability at the feet of “a

Mar 13, 2018

PODCAST: The State of New York Gun Legislation | 112BK

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Jonathan Metzl, Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University, talks with Ashley Ford at 112BK about New York gun legislation and the recent support the gun control movement has gained in the wake of the Parkland shooting. Originally broadcast on 112BK/BRIC Radio. on March 8, 2018. New York State Capitol building image by Shaunfrombrooklyn (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikim

Feb 15, 2018

RADIO: Trump’s comments on Parkland, FL Shooting | KCBS San Francisco

Dr. Jonathan Metzl discusses President Trump’s comments after the Parkland, Florida school shooting with Rebecca Corral on KCBS radio, San Francisco. Trump did not mention gun control but instead focused on the mental health issue. “There are no statistical correlations between gun violence and mental illness,” Metzl states. #politics #school #mentalillness #KCBSSanFrancisco #firearms #guncontrol #psychiatry

Dec 30, 2017

PODCAST: When the Shooter Is White: Race politics surrounding U.S. mass shootings | Brooklyn Live

On the show today: An expert on mental illness and gun violence to talk about mass shootings. Brooklyn Live – Podcast interview about Washington Post essay, “When the Shooter is White.” Originally broadcast on 112BK/BRIC Radio. #mentalillness #BrooklynLive #firearms #guncontrol #psychiatry

Dec 30, 2017

RADIO: Public perception of mass violence and mental illness often misguided

In response to Sunday’s mass shooting at a Texas church, President Trump said the shooting was not “a guns situation,” but rather, a problem of mental health. But according to a Vanderbilt study, between 2001 and 2010, fewer than 5 percent of fatal shootings in the United States were committed by people diagnosed with mental illness. Originally broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio’s “News with Kerri Miller.” #firearms #guncontrol #mentalillness #psychiatry

Dec 30, 2017

ARTICLE: I’m a Psychiatrist. Making Gun Violence About Mental Health Is a Crazy Idea | POLITICO

Before the initial shock wore off in the aftermath of yet another horrific American mass shooting—before we knew about the extent of the injury and death, or the events that transpired or the biography and motives of yet another angry white male armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a grudge—before we really knew anything, President Donald Trump jumped into the fray with a diagnosis. “Mental health is your problem here,” Trump opined from Tokyo in his first comments after 26

Dec 30, 2017

RADIO: How Mental Health Arguments Hinder Solutions To Gun Violence | KCUR’s Up To Date

Jonathan Metzl speaks to KCUR’s “Up To Date” about claims that gun violence in America is primarily a mental health issue, and not one related to the easy availability of firearms. Originally broadcast on KCUR’s Up To Date. #mentalillness #KCURUpToDate #firearms #guncontrol #psychiatry

Oct 14, 2017

RADIO: The Aftermath of the Las Vegas Shootings | Dr. Drew

There is never any easy answer in the aftermath of a shooting tragedy, whether politics, mental illness, personality characteristics, or risk factors. Originally broadcast on Dr. Drew Midday Live with Mike Catherwood. #mentalillness #firearms #guncontrol #DrDrew #psychiatry

Oct 7, 2017

OP-ED: When the Shooter is White | The Washington Post

In the hours and days following the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, politicians and many media outlets reflexively described the shooter, Stephen Paddock, as a solitary madman who planned and carried out the mass killing without apparent connection to any larger network, group or ideology. President Trump, who is quick to label other global acts of mass violence as “radical Islamic terrorism” well before investigations establish such intentions, described the horr

Oct 7, 2017

QUOTED: What was Stephen Paddock’s motive? | BBC News

“Everyone has three lives,” Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez once posited. “A public life, a private life and a secret life.” It remains unclear whether a secret life led Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old wealthy, retired accountant with a penchant for gambling, to open fire on a Las Vegas music festival crowd and kill 58 people and injure 500 others before turning the gun on himself. Read Las Vegas shooting: What was Stephen Paddock’s motive? on BBC NEWS #BBCNews #firear

Oct 7, 2017

VIDEO: Profiling the Las Vegas shooter | Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Raidió Teilifís Éireann’s “Prime Time”: Profiling the Las Vegas shooter. The difficulty in profiling the Las Vegas shooter – Miriam O’Callaghan speaks to psychiatry and sociology professor, Prof. Jonathan Metzel, of the University of Vanderbilt in Nashville and Washington Bureau Chief of the Financial Times, Demetri Sevastopulo. #firearms #guncontrol #law #RaidióTeilifísÉireann

Oct 7, 2017

VIDEO: Discussing gun laws and gun control in the U.S. | TRT World

Originally broadcast on TRT World. #firearms #guncontrol #law #TRTWorld

Feb 25, 2017

VIDEO: Will guns flood New York city under the Trump administration? | BK Live

#BKLive #firearms #law

Nov 30, 2016

VIDEO: Discussing the Possible Future of “Common Sense” Gun Laws | BK Live

#BKLive #firearms #law

Apr 24, 2013

OPINION-ESSAY: Let’s Talk About Guns, But Stop Stereotyping The Mentally Ill

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Restricting gun rights for people with mental illness is the one gun-control initiative that Republicans feel free to support. In the aftermath of the epic failure of substantive gun-control legislation, they “overwhelmingly” voted for mental-health efforts that “could help prevent killers like Adam Lanza, the gunman in the Newtown, Conn., massacre, from slipping through the cracks.” Similar linkages appear in National Rifle Association hea