Thank you, John Oliver. Ever heard of him? Nor me, but he’s the host of a show called Last Week Tonight on HBO. Never heard of him, never seen the show, but I think I’d like to hear more of him and see the show. He has called out Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump who have constantly brought up the subject of mental health every time there is a mass shooting.
The only way I can explain my feelings is to personalise things. I’ve had “episodes” of poor mental health for well over 40 years now. There have been times when I have been so low and so down, I did have very dark thoughts. They never turned into anything violent and it never occurred to me that the best way to deal with it would be to get hold of a gun and go round shooting people. In fact, the only acts of violence I have come across in the wacky world of severe depression and all the other horrendous mental health conditions that exist have been when people have harmed themselves or even killed themselves. And every single one of the people I have known who were in the pits of despair would never have hurt a fly.
The other thing about the ignorant comments of the three unwise men is that their comments fly in the face of all evidence. The fact is that people who are mentally ill are far less likely to commit gun crime than those who are not mentally ill. And they are more likely to be the victims of crime, not the perpetrators. Inconvenient facts are not gratefully received when the gun lobby tries to pass the blame onto everyone else except for a system that allows just about anyone to buy a gun and then use it, often to tragic effect.
I can get lairy about things, often injustice and when people do and say bad things, but that’s part of the human condition. We all feel anger and emotion, sometimes both. But here we are again: the stigma poisons the debate about mental health, especially when there’s an election to be won.
There are reasons America suffers from the effects of gun crime: they are called guns. And when I see the subject of mental health being discussed and then I see Donald Trump, I know there is something very wrong with the world, especially if he is the “normal” one.
