Gun Violence and Mental Illness

I've seen a lot of impassioned posts on social media since the El Paso and Dayton tragedies decrying the notion that mass murderers are mentally ill. The argument is that mental illness does not cause this behavior and to suggest that it does unfairly and unnecessarily stigmatizes those with mental health diagnoses.

I disagree, but first let me show you a post I recently liked on Facebook.

So why would I "like" a post if I disagree with its premise? Ms. Campoamor has a point. I know many people who struggle with their mental health (more people who struggle than who don't struggle, in fact), and I do not believe any one of those people would commit a massacre. 

However, to say that many if not all of these shooters are/were not mentally ill is just as illogical as saying "Guns don't kill; people kill." True, your average anxious, depressed, eating disordered, bipolar self harming man or woman will not commit violence in his or her lifetime does not mean that the people who do aren't mentally ill. The common cold and terminal cancer are both illnesses, but they are not the same illnesses and do not have the same outcomes.  Yet, they are still both sicknesses.

Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook monster, was according to Dr. Harold Schwartz, chief psychiatrist at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living who investigated him after the tragedy, “'completely untreated in the years before the shooting' for psychiatric and physical ailments like anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and was also deprived of recommended services and drugs...also...undiagnosed anorexia could have affected his mental state..he showed signs of 'severe and deteriorating internalized mental health problems.'"

It is true, people we know with OCD, anxiety, and/or anorexia do not become mass shooters, there is no doubt, according to Dr. Schwartz that "It’s not that his mental illness was a predisposing factor in this tragedy...it was his untreated mental illness that was a predisposing factor.”

In efforts to bring attention to the scourge of toxic masculinity, white supremacy, and gun proliferation we cannot ignore the role mental health plays in these tragedies just because it does not suit our narrative or our own identities. This line of thinking parallels NRA talking points that they have hundreds of thousands of members who own assault rifles who do not commit mass shootings.

After these tragedies, which are becoming more and more frequent, people come together to support the victims and communities. We need to come together to find ways to prevent gun violence. Let's not take anything off the plate, including a focus on improving access to mental health care, so that we can feel at ease attending a festival, going to Walmart, and teaching in our classrooms.

Source for the the information on Adam Lanza. 

Are Teachers in Israel Armed?

For the third time on my Facebook feed, a friend mentioned that Israeli teachers are armed in their classrooms. I know this to be untrue, my Israeli husband says it’s untrue, but I figured, what the heck, I will ask Israelis who I know who are geographically and politically diverse who live in Israel right now whether or not teachers are armed.

The media claim that Israel has armed teachers stemmed from the Sandy Hook tragedy two weeks ago.  There are those who claim that to save our children from the mentally deranged, we should arm our teachers, just like Israel does.

Only in common practice, Israel does not actually arm its teachers.

What propelled me to email Israeli friends just to make sure is that today’s source of the misinformation is located on Fox News web site and is written by a freelance journalist who lives in Israel, giving the piece some unfortunate credibility. And even more disturbing, 1.8 million people liked the article on Facebook.

I’m not sure if the author intended to be misleading and hysterical or if it was the work the editors at Fox News.  The headline reads, “Armed Teachers, Guards Bolster security in Israel.” In addition, the article is illustrated with a horrible AP photo of kids in Israel wearing gas masks, which was probably from a drill at some point.

The photo is classic sensationalism and out of context. The headline, as the article somewhat details, is just not true. This is somewhat admitted  by the author himself, although his explanation is totally contradictory and the sentence is pretty meaningless, “And the idea of armed teachers in the classroom, which stirred much controversy in the wake of the U.S. attack, has long been in practice in Israel, though a minority of them carry weapons today.”

So what did my Israeli friends say?

I can't say I recall seeing any teachers with guns on them in school. Many have licenses to carry them because they live in occupied territory but I don't think they walk around armed...- Vivian, teacher and mother of school aged children, Kiryat Gat.

I work at a school - teachers don't carry guns in schools.-  Omri, school administrator and father of school aged children, Jerusalem

As far as I know and from our experience, teachers in Israel are not carrying guns. – Sarit, special education teacher and mother of school aged children, Lachish

From my experience as a student in Israel- we didn't had any teachers with guns in school but I'm assuming that in the West Bank there are more people with firearms license and some of them are probably teachers. -  Hila, cultural emissary, Tel Aviv.

What an outrageous lie!  Teachers do not carry guns. - Sarah, curriculum writer and mother of school aged children, Modiin.

I have never seen a teacher carrying a gun in school in my life – Shlomo, MD, PHD, Jerusalem

Totally disconnect from reality. Anyway, I am not aware at all of such practice. Sounds to me like science fiction. – Yariv, businessman, Bazra

No, teachers in Israel do not carry guns. – Michal, educational tourism, Tel Aviv

The one thought that a lot of people who wrote to me had was that maybe teachers in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) carry weapons because there are more threats there. I only asked one person who lives in a settlement there and he responded,

“Most teachers in Judea and Samaria don't carry guns in school,” Aaron, tourism, Ofra.

So what is true? What is the law?

In Israel, if a teacher is given the authority by the municipality and the Ministry of Education, he/she can carry a weapon in school. However,  that permission is given in very rare circumstances, so much so that the people I talked to are not even conscious of the possibility.

Every Israeli school has an armed guard, this is true, but the James Bond teachers are part of a mythology being spread currently by the NRA and news outlets.

Israel has a lot to offer to the United States, especially in technology and medicine. However, looking to
Israel to help us solve our school shooting problems is just not the answer, even if it gets your article likes on Facebook.

Click below for:

The article that motivated this post

The Israeli law regarding guns in schools (in Hebrew) (Thanks Hila)

An article in the Times of Israel about the reality of guns in Israeli schools (Thanks Sarah)