In “The Mind” column for the New York Times (12/18, D5, Subscription Publication), psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman, MD, writes, “In the wake of the terrible shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., national attention has turned again to the complex links between violence, mental illness and gun control.” Dr. Friedman asserts, “All the focus on the small number of people with mental illness who are violent serves to make us feel safer by displacing and limiting the threat of violence to a small, well-defined group.” However, “the sad and frightening truth is that the vast majority of homicides are carried out by outwardly normal people in the grip of all too ordinary human aggression to whom we provide nearly unfettered access to deadly force.”
Related Links:
— “In Gun Debate, a Misguided Focus on Mental Illness, “Richard Friedman, The New York Times, December 17, 2012.