Mental health illness is quick to be blamed for gun violence, but research shows it only contributed to a small portion of shootings. 

In the United States, nearly 48,000 people died from gun-related incidents in 2022, but the critics often blame mental illness, even though it accounts for a fraction of these tragedies (CDC Firearm and Injury Prevention).  Meanwhile, the silent crises of trauma, access to care, and community safety go largely ignored. 

Public discourse and media often attribute mass shootings or gun violence to mental illness, just like how President Donald Trump and Texas Greg Abbott said “mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun” (BBC News), experts say the reality is more complex. Research shows only about 4% of firearm deaths involve people with diagnosed mental illnesses, leaving 96% linked to other factors, including domestic violence, crime, and easy access to guns (National Library of Medicine). This gap between perception and data raises deeper questions about how to truly address America’s gun violence crisis.

“Why are we teaching a 5 year old to not touch a gun, and not an adult not to handle it safely and keep live ammunition out? Sickening…We are putting the burden of safety on a 5 year old, more than an adult?”, says Penny Okamoto, the executive director at Ceasefire Oregon, a non-profit advocating for stronger gun laws. Okamoto hopes to emphasize what she thinks is an overlooked conversation surrounding the systematic failures and adult accountability that contribute to these deaths.

Mental illness is a weak risk factor, considering less than 5% of gun violence is committed by individuals with diagnosed mental illness (National Library of Medicine)  violence despite the popular media propaganda which paints a picture of mental health linking to gun violence. The popularity given to mass shootings by the media has two effects; Annu Rev Clin Psychol in the National Library of Medicine wrote how they first promote stigma by conflating mental illness and violence, which in return affects the public and produces this negative view of people suffering with mental health. Secondly, they distract the public and policy makers from dealing with the issue of gun control laws and blame it on those with mental illnesses. 

When looking at this from a larger scale, the simplistic model of mental illness that American policymakers are pushing leads to an ineffective policy solution: providing more mental health services. Policymakers are attracted to this plan because it helps them avoid more complicated and politically divided debates about the laws of gun ownership, tracking, and registration, says Okamoto. 

Beyond individual responsibility, the firearm industry itself plays a major role in shaping America’s gun culture. With over 400 million firearms (National Shooting Sports Association) in circulation among a population of roughly 340 million, the U.S. gun market is already saturated, yet manufacturers continue aggressive marketing campaigns—particularly for semi-automatic weapons—to adults and, increasingly, youth. “They cannot go anywhere else in the world than the way they sell in the U.S.,” Okamoto notes, highlighting the unique permissiveness of the American market. She also emphasizes the government’s close ties to the industry: “The U.S. protects the firearm industry and they are pro-shooting. They don’t care about the consumers, kids, and it’s the leading cause of death. No one talks about it… Presidents, no one.”

When looking at the BIPOC community, particularly the youth, there is a disparity ratio of individuals impacted by guns, said Olive from the Trevor Project. This disparity shows up in how violence is experienced and explained: for many young people of color, firearms are not an abstract policy issue, but are usually tied to concentrated disadvantages in an environment or where they have grown up. An article published by the University of Pennsylvania on socioeconomic status mentions that “Black families have systematically lower household wealth than white families, including lower home values”. In addition they also talk about how there tends to be less investments in education, infrastructure, and resources in majority Black neighborhoods, that put Black individuals at a higher risk of gun homicide. 

This leads onto gang violence which is a major player where gun violence intersects. Exposure to violence increases risk for both perpetration and victimization and it creates complex mental-health needs (PTSD, chronic anxiety, substance use). Framing these incidents primarily as “mental illness” doesn’t allow consideration of structural causes like underfunded schools, scarce jobs, and shaky social services slide out of the story. Then when an incident occurs within these communities, the media is quick to blame it on mental health and not consider the various influences which factor into the equation the individual has gone through.

Overall, attributing America’s gun violence crisis primarily to mental illness oversimplifies the issue and overlooks other significant contributing factors–such as easy firearm access, neighborhood disadvantages, and systematic inequality–often overshadowed. 

This article was written for the Yale Daily News’ 2025 Summer Journalism Program for high school students.