Every mass shooting in last 20 years has one commonality

[baldeagle]

Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common... and it's not guns

What is it? Psychotropic drugs. Prozac. Zoloft. Ritalin. etc., etc., etc.

[anygunanywhere]

Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common... and it's not guns

What is it? Psychotropic drugs. Prozac. Zoloft. Ritalin. etc., etc., etc.

Am I missing out? I'm not taking any of that.

I miss out on everything.

Anygunanywhere

[bdickens]

Okay, what's the point?

[ajwakeboarder]

What is it? Psychotropic drugs. Prozac. Zoloft. Ritalin. etc., etc., etc.

I've taken Ritalin before. A doctor prescribed it for ADD when i was younger. My mom noticed it started to make me act different so she stopped giving it to me. I think any behavior modifying drugs cause more problems than they solve. I also thing they eliminate individuality.

[baldeagle]

Okay, what's the point?

The point is that if we want to stop or reduce mass shootings, we should look at the use of psychotropic drugs and determine whether they are over prescribed, whether they lead to psychotic behavior and whether those who take them should be under close medical supervision.

[K.Mooneyham]

Okay, what's the point?

The point is that if we want to stop or reduce mass shootings, we should look at the use of psychotropic drugs and determine whether they are over prescribed, whether they lead to psychotic behavior and whether those who take them should be under close medical supervision.

I'm not going to say that those meds have never helped anyone. But I will say that despite how smart the medical community may be, there is no way they can know exactly how any given substance, especially ones that are DESIGNED to affect brain activity, will cause any particular individual to react. And yet, they push that stuff like candy.

[HankB]

When I was a kid, you just never heard about school shootings, and there was no hoplophobia with the teachers or administrators who'd punish a kid for pointing his finger at another kid and saying "POW!"

On the other hand, the pill pushing quacks of modern psychiatry weren't doping up kids the way they do now, either.

There does seem to be a correlation . . .

[MasterOfNone]

Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common... and it's not guns

What is it? Psychotropic drugs. Prozac. Zoloft. Ritalin. etc., etc., etc.

This is why the antis like to isolate "gun violence" in their discussions. One thing common to all gun violence is the gun. When we consider all violence, guns are not as commonly involved.
Suicide is treated the same way. If someone commits suicide with a gun, the rhetoric is all about keeping guns away from people. But when someone hangs himself, then they talk about mental condition, not rope.

[rotor]

The problem with your argument is that one of the most (if not the most) prescribed meds are anti-depressants. Years ago there was a big push to not prescribe these meds to teens because they possibly were linked to teen suicide. So the anti-depressants were cut back and teen suicide rate actually went up. There is more to this and that is just the fact that there are crazy people out there. We all know it, we all have met them at one time or another. There is no way to identify these people unless you look at disability records where young people with "bipolar" disorder are already on Medicare because they are disabled. I wonder if they can pass a background check. Some of them are very functional on their meds- but watch out if they stop them. The fact is that crazy people when they decide to kill do it with whatever weapon they can get- knife, gun, car, whatever- and there is no way to prevent them because there is no way to identify them beforehand.

[EEllis]

First looking at the source I hardly find it credible. Second the original title said nearly every shooting which means not every shooting. Third the fact that the people are disturbed may mean a lot more than the fact that they were trying to be treated by someone.

[Redneck_Buddha]

It's really as simple as reading the possible side effects on the inserts to these drugs:

From the Harvard Medical School Journal:

*Suicide. The risk that antidepressants will incite violent or self-destructive actions has become the subject of renewed controversy. One reason for concern is the increasing number of children and adolescents receiving prescriptions for antidepressants. When compared with a placebo, all antidepressants, including SSRIs, seem to double the risk of suicidal thinking, from 1%–2% to 2%–4%, in both children and adults.

Full entry is here:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_rel ... de_effects" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Black box suicide warning on SSRI medication is applicable to patients 24 and under. Lanza was 20, Holmes, 25.

[The Annoyed Man]

Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common... and it's not guns

What is it? Psychotropic drugs. Prozac. Zoloft. Ritalin. etc., etc., etc.

No, the thing they all have in common is liberals trying to make political hay out of tragedy.

[bdickens]

Okay, what's the point?

The point is that if we want to stop or reduce mass shootings, we should look at the use of psychotropic drugs and determine whether they are over prescribed, whether they lead to psychotic behavior and whether those who take them should be under close medical supervision.

The point of the article seems to be "Psychiatric Drugs Bad."
This is the kind of Baloney Sandwich augment that provides textbook examples of the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy. For every one individual prescribed psychiatric medications who goes off the rails and does something horrible, there are thousands who are helped tremendously.

Perhaps we should ban guns. Even though the vast majority of people who have them never do anything wrong, there is always going to be the occasional bad actor who takes one and does something horrible.

[bdickens]

Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common... and it's not guns

What is it? Psychotropic drugs. Prozac. Zoloft. Ritalin. etc., etc., etc.

No, the thing they all have in common is liberals trying to make political hay out of tragedy.

You, sir, are a genius.

[EconDoc]

When I was in school, we didn't get Ritalin or other drugs when we acted up. We got our rear ends busted with a paddle board. Then, when we got home, we got another britches bustin' from our folks. Never saw the problems that we have today. The sad thing is that some school administrators use CPS to force parents and physicians to put students on psychotropic drugs, even when those drugs are not FDA approved for use on children and adolescents. It is sickening.