In the shadow of the two year anniversary of one of the worst mass shootings in American history, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, an extensive new study by two Vanderbilt University researchers challenges common assumptions about gun violence and mental illness that often emerge in the aftermath of mass shootings. When a mass shooting occurs there seems to be a familiar narrative that untreated mental illness is the primary cause for the terrifying act. But a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health by Dr. Jonathan Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish finds that an isolated focus on mental illness is misguided. “Gun discourse after mass shootings often perpetuates the fear that ‘some crazy person is going to come shoot me,’” said Metzl, the study’s lead author. “But if you look at the research, it’s not the ‘crazy’ person you have to fear.” MENTALLY ILL NOT VIOLENT In the article, “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings and the Politics of American Firearms,” Metzl and MacLeish analyzed data and literature linking guns and mental illness over the past 40 years. They found that despite societal pre-conceived notions, most mentally ill people are not violent. “Fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the United States between 2001 and 2010 were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness,” they write. FOUR MYTHS ARISE AFTER MASS SHOOTINGS Their research uncovered four central myths that arise in the aftermath of mass shootings: (1) Mental illness causes gun violence (2) Psychiatric diagnosis can predict gun crime before it happens (3) U.S. mass-shootings “prove” that we should fear mentally ill loners (4) Because of the complex psychiatric histories of mass-shooters, gun control “won’t prevent” mass shootings They stress that all four of these are incorrect, though understandable assumptions. “Our research finds that across the board the mentally ill are 60 to120 percent more likely than the average person to be the victims of violent crime rather than the perpetrators.” MISDIRECTED BLAME Metzl and MacLeish find that the focus on mental illness after horrific, yet statistically rare, mass shootings misdirects people from the bigger issues tied to preventing gun deaths in the U.S. “There are 32,000 gun deaths in the United States on average every year and people are far more likely to be shot by relatives, friends or acquaintances than they are by lone violent psychopaths,” said Metzl. “We should set our attention and gun policies on the everyday shootings, not on the sensational shootings because there we will get much more traction in preventing gun crime.” Read more at http://news.vanderbilt.edu Search Jonathan Metzl. Follow Vanderbilt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vanderbiltu, on Instagram: http://instagram.com/vanderbiltu and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanderbilt. See all Vanderbilt social media at http://social.vanderbilt.edu.