Exploiting Mental Illness

Rather than acknowledging the mental issues that may cause somebody to pick up a gun and shoot a mass amount of people, news outlets are more concerned with what they are harming people with, as opposed to how. “I n the aftermath of mass shootings, the public is exposed to a torrent of news stories describing the shooter with serious mental illness, his history, and his actions during the shooting. These portrayals of the shooting events raise public support for gun control policies but also contribute to negative attitudes toward those with serious mental illness” (McGinty). These negative attitudes were identified to be most prevalent towards individuals with serious conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, some of the most common mental illnesses within mass shooters. In other words, by exploiting shooters with a mental illness as a means to promote their agenda, news outlets are causing an influx in the amount of mentally ill shooters.