Another mass shooting and more talk of the mentally ill. [View all]

But what role does mental health and and substance abuse really play in shootings and gun violence?

The Chattanooga Shooter Reportedly Suffered from Mental Illness and Abused Drugs and Alcohol. Only One of Those Has a Clear Link to Gun Violence.

http://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/chattanooga-shooter-mental-illness-alcohol-drugs-data-gun-violence/

There's too much here to distill it down to four paragraphs but the jist of the article is that alcohol is a bigger factor in many more shootings than legal or illegal drugs and mental illness. By a big margin.

It's a well researched article with many links to source information and well worth the read. It doesn't make any recommendations but lays bare the misconceptions that a lot of people on both sides of the issue of guns in society have. Perhaps if the CDC were to get funding for research we'd have a better idea of the causes and cures for at least some of the gun violence that takes 30,000 lives, injures 100,000 and costs the economy $200 Billion a year,