WashPo: Mass Shooters Most Often ‘Ruthless’ Rather Than Mentally Ill

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Only two out of 10 mass-killers are mentally ill, The Washington Post shows in a new article about forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone.

Stone is a forensic psychiatrist at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and his work shows that advancing the treatment of mental illness will do little to prevent mass shootings.

According to the Washington Post, Stone maintains a database containing information on “more than 300 killers.” Last year he published his findings on those killers, showing “that just about two in every 10 mass killers were suffering from serious mental illness. The rest had personality or antisocial disorders or were disgruntled, jilted, humiliated or full of intense rage. They were unlikely to be identified or helped by the mental health system, reformed or not.”

In other words, eight out of 10 mass killers would not be detected by the mental health system prior to carrying out an attack. Therefore, all the time, money, and legislation currently focused on treating mental health as a way to stop mass attacks is misplaced, at best.

Stone said, “It would be ridiculous to hope that doing something about the mental health system will stop these mass murders.”

It is important to note that all the time and energy gun grabbers like Gabby Giffords, Shannon Watts, and Michael Bloomberg spend pushing an expansion of background checks–via an increased mental illness focus–is suspect as well. After all, using mental health diagnoses as a way to screen possible threats is only likely to find one-fifth of would-be attackers at best, if Stone’s assessment is correct.

On October 14, 2015–approximately two weeks after the heinous attack in the gun free zone at Umpqua Community College–Breitbart News warned that more gun control could not fix evil. And in reading The Washington Post‘s summary of Stone’s work, it appears a “ruthless” or evil nature is the driving force behind eighty percent of all mass killings. More laws will not change human nature.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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