Gun Control

Yes or knives–there was a kid who took a machete to his parents because of the drugs.

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Exactly. If you go back before the drugs and question why Americans are so depressed, you start learning about how messed up our food supply is.

People don’t even realize that as recently as the 1970’s high schools had marksmanship teams. They’d have .22 caliber rifles on school grounds to practice. Kids would travel to other schools for matches. There weren’t school shootings. Saying guns are the problem isn’t understanding the problem.

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Here’s another list. (I have not verified all the incidents, just an FYI)

http://www.brmecham.com/antidepressants/main.html

School shootings linked to Antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs

  1. March 23, 2005: Jeff Weise, on prozac, shot and killed 9 people, including his Grandpa. At Red Lake High School, Minnesota, he killed 5 students, a teacher and an unarmed security guard. He later killed himself. [31]

  2. May 20, 1999: T.J. Solomon, a 15-year-old, wounded six at Heritage High School in Conyers, GA. CNN Reports That T.J. Solomon was on Ritalin. [32]

  3. April 16, 1999: Shawn Cooper, a 15-year-old sophomore, wounded one at Notus Junior-Senior High School in Notus, Idaho. Reports stated that Cooper was abused and medicated. [32]

  4. April 20, 1999: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed thirteen and wounded twenty-three at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. Eric Harris, the apparent leader of the attack had been on Luvox. Klebold�s records where not released.[32]

  5. May 21, 1998: Kip Kinkel, a 14-year old, killed 2 and injured 22 after opening fire at his Springfield, Oregon, high school. He had undergone psychological �anger management� classes and was taking psychiatric drugs. [32]

  6. March 24, 1998: Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, opened fire on their classmates and killed five and wounded eleven at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark. [32]

  7. Neal Furrow, in an LA Jewish school shooting, was reported to have been court ordered to be on Prozac along with several other medications. [33]

  8. February 2, 1996: In an algebra class at Frontier Junior High School in Mose Lake, Washington, Barry Loukaitas, 14, killed his teacher and two teenage boys with an assault rifle, and wounded a girl. Loukaitas was sentenced to two mandatory life terms. [34]

  9. October 30, 1995: Edward Earl Spellman, 18, shot and wounded four students outside their high school in Richmond, Virginia. [34]

  10. January 18, 1993: In Grayhurst, Kentucky, Scott Pennington, 17, entered Deanna McDavid’s English class at East Carter High School and shot her in the head. He also shot Marvin Hicks, the school janitor, in the stomach. Pennington was sentenced to life, without the possibility of parole for 25 years. [34]

  11. May 1, 1992: Eric Houston, 20, killed four people and wounded 10 at his former high school in Olivehurst, California. Houston was sentenced to death. [34]

Other Crimes linked to Antidepressants.

  1. Brynn Hartman, wife of comedian Phil Hartman, had the Antidepressant Zoloft in her bloodstream when she murdered her husband in his sleep and then later turned the gun on herself. [35]

  2. Prozac was found in the van of Mark Barton, the Atlanta day trader, who recently killed his family and others in a shooting spree before taking his own life. [35]

  3. The Salt Lake Family History Library shooting. [35]

  4. 15 year old Chris Shanahan (Paxil) in Rigby, ID who out of the blue killed a woman. [35]

  5. The shooting at the lottery in Connecticut last spring by Matthew Beck (Luvox) that left five dead in a murder/suicide. [35]

  6. The New York City Subway bombing by Edward Leary (Prozac). [35]

  7. Nick Mansies (Paxil) in New Jersey who was convicted of killing a little boy who was selling cookies door to door. Sam Manzie, 15, attacked, raped and strangled to death an 11-year-old boy selling items door to door for the PTA. He was on Paxil. WHICH ONE!!! [35]

  8. In Orange County, CA Dana Sue Gray (Paxil) who co-workers described as a very caring nurse killed several elderly people. [35]

  9. Officer Stephen Christian (Prozac) one of the finest officers on the Dallas Police force, who ran into a police substation shooting at fellow officers and was killed. [35]

  10. 13 year old Chris Fetters (Prozac) in Iowa who killed her favorite aunt. [35]

  11. David Rothman (Prozac) killed two co-workers and himself at the Dept. of Agriculture in Ingelwood, CA. [35]

  12. Williams Evans (Zoloft) shot one co-worker at the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services before shooting himself in Columbus, OH. [35]

  13. Winatchee, WA where 43 people were wrongfully imprisoned in a false accusation of sexual abuse “witch hunt” fury started by a child under the influence of Prozac and Paxil. [35]

  14. Christopher Vasquez (Zoloft) killed Michael Morrow in Central Park. [35]

  15. Megan Hogg (Prozac) duct taped the mouths and noses of her three little girls and took a handful of pills. [35]

  16. Vera Espinoza (Prozac) in Randolph, VT shot her small son and daughter before shooting herself. [35]

  17. An elderly man (Prozac) in Layton, UT axed his wife and daughter to death. [35]

  18. Margaret Kastanis (Prozac) used a knife and hammer to kill her three children before stabbing herself to death. [35]

  19. An elderly man (Paxil) in Dallas, TX strangled his wife before shooting himself twice in the chest. [35]

  20. Larramie Huntzinger (Zoloft) blacked out and ran his car into three young girls killing two in Salt Lake City, UT. [35]

  21. Mary Hinkelman (Prozac), a nurse in Baroda, MI shot her two small daughters and her sister before shooting herself. [35]

  22. Lisa Fox (Prozac) shot her small son and her dog before shooting herself in Brighton, MI. [35]

  23. Debi Louselle (Zoloft) shot daughter and then herself in Salt Lake City, UT. [35]

  24. A father in Wyoming shot his wife, daughter and baby grand-daughter then himself after only days on Paxil. [35]

  25. A mother (Prozac) in Pleasant Grove, UT killed her 17 year old son with a sledge hammer while he slept before she attempted suicide by drinking Drano. [35]

  26. Larry Butz, a superintendent of schools in Ames, IA shot his wife, son and daughter before shooting himself - many cases pending in court are not mentioned. [35]

  27. January 1, 1998 - A Star Bulletin article reports that the role of Prozac in a Maui murder-suicide will be argued in a June 2, 1998 hearing in Honolulu’s federal court. Five years prior, William Forsyth stabbed his wife 15 times then propped a knife on a stool and stabbed himself. He had been on Prozac for two weeks at the time. [36]

  28. December 8, 1997 -Time magazine article reports that INXS lead vocalist Michael Hutchence was found naked and dead hanging by a belt attached to the closing mechanism of his hotel room door. A bottle of Prozac was found in his room just after the suicide. [37]

  29. Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl one week after he started taking Dexedrine. [38]

  30. AUSTRALIA: David Hawkins (above left), a 74-year-old with no prior history of violence, killed his wife while on an Antidepressant. In 2001, a judge ruled that the drug was in part responsible. [39]

  31. In 2001, Andrea Yates filled the bathtub and drowned her 5 children, ages 6 months to 7 years. Medical experts argue that the murderous rage was induced by excessive dosages of certain psychiatric drugs, causing �involuntary intoxication.� [40]

  32. JAPAN: The same year, Mamoru Takuma (above right), 37, stabbed to death 8 schoolchildren and injured 15 others in a frenzied knife attack while under the influence of psychiatric drugs. [41]

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Yeah… Bad nutrition, but also less exercise, less Vitamin D. Recently read that one of the depression clinics (I thought it was Mayo Clinic, but can’t find the article) found that exercise was the most effective remedy for depression. Here’s another article though:

Is that the new party line among conservatives to avoid gun control? Nothing that is talked about above is unique to the US. But you don’t see the same rate of gun violence elsewhere.

Oh and btw the Dayton and El Paso incidents are all linked 8chan and right wing terrorists who were radicalized on line and subscribe to the manifesto pushed by the president and the racial politics republicans are running. You could also associate the Gilroy shooter with the same

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What part of the US consuming 80% of the world’s anti depressants don’t you understand? If you want to bring in race, how homogenous are the populations of other countries you’re referencing vs the US population?

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Marcus, serious question to put the fringe right shootings over the last few days in perspective – how many people in the US has Antifa killed?

I seriously have no idea but figured you would be the person who would know…

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Marcus we know you are a good little foot soldier who helps propagate the latest right wing party line. Of the 3 shootings in the last week - gilroy, El Paso, Dayton, who many of them were on drugs and how many of them have published racial animosity?

There’s zero good data on it. They aren’t classified as a terror org, so it’s literally manually compiling from each news report. They’ve definitely done more injuring and property destruction than actual deaths though.

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You know the drug stuff isn’t available right away. We will only find out if the autopsy results are made public, and they often aren’t. We may not know unless the family voluntarily discloses the info. Teri posted a long list of incidents where anti depressants were involved.

The AR-15 went on sale to civilians on 1963. Kids carried guns to school as recently as the 1970’s. Mass shootings weren’t happening until recently. What changed? It wasn’t the availability of the guns.

“ According to a report released yesterday by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the rate of antidepressant use in this country among teens and adults (people ages 12 and older) increased by almost 400% between 1988–1994 and 2005–2008.”

When did mass shootings start to significantly increase?

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Do you really think that they medicate kids the way we do in the EU? These medications have serious side effects and there should be warnings both to the patients AND their families about the potential for suicide and murder. There are many families who have been harmed who want better labeling and warnings.

PS: I’m not arguing for or against gun laws, but these meds are dangerous and families have had MANY issues with them. Once on, it can be really hard to wean kids off too.

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Why are you blaming the meds and not the underlying depression? Seems like the fallacy of correlation vs causation. I’m not arguing against your position that we are overmedicating…merely that the meds may be a symptom of an underlying (cultural) problem in how we raise our kids rather than the cause of it.

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Because depression does not generally turn people into killers. Suicidal yes. Killers, no. Most depressed people end up in a downhill spiral of not helping themselves. Neglect is the biggest problem with depression. Sleeping a lot, not getting out to see friends, dropping out of school, failing to get to one’s job and then losing it. Homelessness. Most depressed people don’t pick up an axe and bludgeon the the people around them. And yes, the question of why so many people are depressed in the first place is a very good one. But people who’ve been on some of these meds and come off have told some very interesting stories about how they felt and what they were thinking while they were on them.

One exception might be post-partum depression. Certainly there are stories of mothers feeling helpless and suicidal and killing their kids and then themselves. But kids don’t generally kill their mothers to keep them from the sufferings of the world because they’re depressed.

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BTW: There’s been some interesting developments in the link between vaccines and depression.

One researcher was able to use flu shots to increase depression because it triggers IL-6 inflammation and inflammation is linked with depression:

There was a significant increase in circulating IL-6 from pre- to post-intervention ( p = .008), and there was significant variability in the magnitude of IL-6 change. Greater increases in IL-6 were associated with greater mood disturbance on post-vaccine days, specifically depressed mood and cognitive symptoms.

And another study showing that the more depressed you are, the more IL-6 inflammation after vaccination:

Participants with more depressive symptoms had higher levels of IL-6 before and after vaccination than did those who reported fewer symptoms; moreover, individuals reporting more depressive symptoms also showed an increase in plasma IL-6 levels 2 weeks later, while there was little change in IL-6 levels among those reporting few or no symptoms.

Another article relating to IL-6, typhoid vaccination, and sleep issues:

It’s really fascinating stuff because it might indicate that by reducing inflammation, you can reduce depression. Which would lead to exercise and diet changes being helpful.

BTW: Here’s a study from Sweden regarding SSRIs and violent crime:

Using within-individual models, there was an overall association between SSRIs and violent crime convictions (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.19, 95% CI 1.08–1.32, p < 0.001, absolute risk = 1.0%). With age stratification, there was a significant association between SSRIs and violent crime convictions for individuals aged 15 to 24 y (HR = 1.43, 95% CI 1.19–1.73, p < 0.001, absolute risk = 3.0%). However, there were no significant associations in those aged 25–34 y (HR = 1.20, 95% CI 0.95–1.52, p = 0.125, absolute risk = 1.6%), in those aged 35–44 y (HR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.83–1.35, p = 0.666, absolute risk = 1.2%), or in those aged 45 y or older (HR = 1.07, 95% CI 0.84–1.35, p = 0.594, absolute risk = 0.3%). Associations in those aged 15 to 24 y were also found for violent crime arrests with preliminary investigations (HR = 1.28, 95% CI 1.16–1.41, p < 0.001), non-violent crime convictions (HR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.10–1.34, p < 0.001), non-violent crime arrests (HR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.07–1.20, p < 0.001), non-fatal injuries from accidents (HR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.22–1.36, p < 0.001), and emergency inpatient or outpatient treatment for alcohol intoxication or misuse (HR = 1.98, 95% CI 1.76–2.21, p < 0.001). With age and sex stratification, there was a significant association between SSRIs and violent crime convictions for males aged 15 to 24 y (HR = 1.40, 95% CI 1.13–1.73, p = 0.002) and females aged 15 to 24 y (HR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.08–2.84, p = 0.023). However, there were no significant associations in those aged 25 y or older. One important limitation is that we were unable to fully account for time-varying factors.

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Food is a significant factor. We eat so much processed food full of chemicals, and it changes how the body functions. Other countries are way behind the US and each more natural foods.

I’m sure social media and the constant in your face comparison to everyone else doesn’t help.

I’m also curious if bullying is more of an issue today vs 30 years ago. If you read about most spree killers, they want to be noticed, they want to be heard, they want everyone to know who they are, etc.

There are more studies being done on how tech makes us more isolated. I just saw one that 22% of millennials say they don’t have a friend. That’s crazy.

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The article starts says

Research shows that there is no direct link between gun violence (excluding suicide) and mental health. In fact, people with disabilities of all kinds are more likely to be the victims of gun violence. People with disabilities in general are 2.5 times more likely to be the victims of a violent crime, such as robbery or sexual assault. The police are also more likely to use deadly force against people with disabilities.

and

In general, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), people with any disability are 2.5 times more likely to be the victims of any crime than people without disabilities. They are also more likely to be the victims of violent crimes.(9)

(9) Erika Harrell, U.S. Dep’t of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ No. 250632, Crimes Against Persons with Disabilities: 2009-2015 Statistical Tables 3 (2017).

which is here

Mental health is not explicitly one of those disabilities unless it’s gotten to the point where someone cannot take care of themselves at all, ie independent living:

Also, the Swedish article is referencing cases of people on SSRI medications. No one is arguing about depressed or mentalliy ill people in general, but questioning the safety of those on certain anti-depressant medications. So we’re looking at a particular class of people committing mass murders and asking if medication led the perpetrators to be in a state of mind to commit murders they might not otherwise have committed.

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I’m curious what your point is. It doesn’t mention depression at all. It talks about disabilities. Is depression a disability now?

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