[aishah]

i hope it's okay to post this here...one of the things that commonly happens in the wake of things like this is to talk about mental illness, and it feels like "lone crazy gunman!" becomes this trope/catchphrase. with the arizona shooting...there were obvious political implications though the shooter wasn't clearly on the left or right. it seemed somewhat ideologically motivated. there have also been other ideological acts that have been labeled "lone crazy gunman" in the last few years.

obviously we don't know what the case is here yet - if it was politically motivated or otherwise. but with people associating these crimes with mental illness, and with the cultural tropes we have about "crazy" people being dangerous and violent...i just wanted to point out how problematic that dialogue can be for people who have mental health disabilities.

most people with mental health issues are not violent. violence, even heinous and extreme violence, is not only caused by mental health issues. a lot of people who are considered perfectly sane do very extreme and terrible things. so...i am not saying this person wasn't having mental health problems...i just...hope that we (as in, u.s. society) would not jump to those conclusions so quickly and always assume mental health problems unless there's actual evidence.

i do agree that mental health services need to be expanded...a lot of my work is in the mental health field and there are so many gaps. i am not certain expanding mental health services would stop acts like this from happening. i think expanding social services for all people who are unable to access health care, food, etc. would do a long way to generally help with coping with a lot of different social problems.