U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 195

A 2015 study from the researchers Jonathan Meltz and Kenneth MacLeish of Vanderbilt University found that "less than 3% to 5% of US crimes involve people with mental illness, and the percentages of crimes that involve guns are lower than the national average for persons not diagnosed with mental illness."

And when it comes specifically to mass-shooting events, James Knoll and George D. Annas wrote in a chapter of the 2016 book "Gun Violence and Mental Illness" that "mass shootings by people with serious mental illness represent less than 1% of all yearly gun-related homicides," while "deaths by suicide using firearms account for the majority of yearly gun-related deaths."

Because people with diagnosed mental illnesses commit such a tiny percentage of shootings that harm other people, Knoll and Annas wrote that "laws intended to reduce gun violence that focus on a population representing less than 3% of all gun violence will be extremely low yield, ineffective, and wasteful of scarce resources," partly because "perpetrators of mass shootings are unlikely to have a history of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization" in the first place.

Trump said people with mental illness should be 'involuntarily confined' if necessary to prevent mass shootings, despite research showing a lack of connection between mental illness and gun violence

hey if it means his votes will take a hit in 2020, sure why not?