As we have discussed in class, the issue of gun control is not clear cut (especially when politicians try to muddy the waters). Recently, the President has offered a new proposal to reduce gun violence in the United States, which is to build more mental institutions. When trying to flush out how effective the President's proposal would be at curbing gun violence it was hard to find analysis from both sides of the political spectrum, so I settled on this article by Jacqueline Alemany with The Washington Post.
In the week of Aug. 22, the President was quoted saying that in regards to the "whole gun situation... I do want people to remember the words 'mental illness.' These people are mentally ill... I think we have to start building institutions again." (Alemany, The Washington Post) In addition to building institutions, the President's administration has been briefed on the creation of a new agency inside the Health and Human Services Department known as the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA). HARPA, a $40- $60 million project if it receives Congressional approval, would use artificial intelligence to identify people with mental illness that could potentially become violent. Also, the research collected would eventually be made public. Although, mental illness may be a factor in violent acts, experts have found that it is rarely a predictor and studies have revealed that most mass shooters have not had diagnosed mental illnesses. Ultimately, both of these ideas that are being considered by the President and his administration demonstrate that they view the issue of gun violence as a health issue as opposed to an issue of an overabundance of guns in America.
Link (2): https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/22/white-house-considers-new-project-seeking-links-between-mental-health-violent-behavior/?noredirect=on
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