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FBI Study Backs Up Trump on Mental Health and Mass Shootings

When President Trump used the word “mental illness” in his national address, liberals started to balk.

However, there is a recent FBI study that supports Trump’s premise but also better clarifies the proper terminology Trump should have used when he made his statement.

Mental Illness Vs. Mental Health

Some may argue the use of these two words is semantics, but for medical purposes, it is not.

Technically, mental illness has to be diagnosed by a mental health professional, which is not the case in most mass shooters.

However, mental health is a major contributing factor to the stressors that set these individuals off.

In the study, mental health issues are defined as individuals that are struggling with “depression, anxiety, paranoia, etc… in their daily life before the attack.”

The FBI Study

The study conducted by the FBI looked at mass shooters from 2000 to 2013.

The study broke the characteristics of the shooters down into 10 different categories, including mental health.

Of the mass shooters examined, “each active shooter displayed 4 to 5 concerning behaviors over time that were observable to others around the shooter.

“The most frequently occurring concerning behaviors were related to the active shooter’s mental health, problematic interpersonal interactions, and leakage of violent intent.”

Among the stressors, mental health was an issue for 62 percent of the shooters examined in the study.

Additionally, 25 percent of the shooters in the study had been diagnosed with a mental illness by a mental health professional.

Of those that were diagnosed, “12 active shooters had a mood disorder, four were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, three were diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, and two were diagnosed with a personality disorder.”

There were a total of 16 cases that have been diagnosed, so several of the shooters were actually suffering from multiple disorders.

One of the more telling pieces of information from the study was the “concerning behaviors” prior to the attack.

This is something I have personally stressed since I first started writing on this subject and something that I believe is woefully ignored.

The study found that concerning behaviors were present in 56 percent of the cases as far out as 25 months, eight percent as far out as 13-24 months, and 21 percent as far out as 6-12 months.

Point being, there are signs if people know what to look for.

In the case of the Dayton shooter, he allegedly went to school with rape and kill lists, yet nobody thought to throw up a red flag.

While I am not saying all mass shootings are preventable, a significant amount of them may have been had people actually caught these behaviors, as there were ZERO cases were this behavior only first showed itself within 24 hours of the shooting and only two percent inside of 30 days.

Roughly 90 percent of these shooters showed concerning behavior at least six months out of the shooting, yet it was not recognized.

This is what we should be concentrating on, not blaming Trump or touting more gun legislation that will do absolutely nothing to stop this epidemic.

To see the full FBI study, click here.

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