“It’s a mental health issue!!”
First of all, it’s a gun issue. Shocking fact: no mentally ill person has ever committed a gun shooting without a gun.
This monster in Texas bought two assault rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition legally, just days after his 18th birthday, without any waiting period or a permit needed to carry them in public. You not only wrote the laws that allow that, Republicans – you regularly campaign on how proud you are of them. You’re literally still doing it right now, with 19 kids and two of their teachers not even buried in the ground yet!
Second: Yes, it is also a mental health issue. But considering that you Republicans are the main ones who have been closing and/or de-funding psychiatric facilities for years (shifting hundreds of thousands of these mentally ill people you say you’re so concerned about into homelessness, for which you then accuse them of irresponsibility and laziness), and refusing to require insurance plans to provide access to good outpatient mental healthcare. And the very fact that you only start screaming about mental health when there’s a mass shooting adds to the stigma of mental health conditions to begin with, which further deters people from seeking help in the first place.
So fine. Republicans: it’s a mental health issue (in part). But even then, it is still very much your fault.
