Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
A grim landscape
The numbers, on their face, offer a glimmer of hope in a grim landscape. Mass shootings in the U.S. have recently dipped to their lowest levels in two decades.
Yet, for those living in the wake of such tragedies, the data are cold comfort. America continues to outpace all peer nations in gun-related deaths, and the public conversation on the topic remains a fractured tug-of-war between constitutional absolutes and public safety.
At a December 19th briefing hosted by American Community Media, experts and survivors converged to move the conversation beyond the partisan shibboleths. The discussion centered not just on the “what” of gun violence, but the “why”—in particular, debunking the pervasive narrative that mental illness is the primary driver of mass murder.
Mass shootings
“Mass shootings account for a small fraction of annual worldwide murders, yet disproportionately affect society and influence policy,” notes a landmark study from the Columbia Mass Murder Database. Dr. Ragy Girgis, a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University and the curator of the database, has spent years studying over 1,300 mass murders dating back to 1900. The evidence challenges the reflex to blame psychosis for every tragedy.
According to Dr. Girgis’s research, only about 11% of mass murderers exhibited lifetime psychotic symptoms—a figure that drops 8% when looking at those who engaged in firearms. In fact, mass murderers who did not take up guns were more likely to have a record of experiencing psychosis, about 18%.
The implication is clear: focusing solely on severe mental illness as a preventative measure is a strategy with limited reach. “Policies aimed at preventing mass shootings by focusing on serious mental illness, characterized by psychotic symptoms, may have limited impact,” the study concludes. Instead, the data suggest more substantial results could come from targeting firearm access, substance misuse, and non-psychotic psychopathology.
School shootings
For Sarah Lerner, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the 2018 shooting, the debate isn’t academic—it’s visceral. On February 14, 2018, she was giving a quiz to her seniors when a fire alarm sent them into the hallways and into the path of a gunman. “It was the most horrific experience I have had in my entire life,” Lerner recalled. She spent three hours huddled in a classroom with 15 students before the SWAT team arrived.
Today, as a co-founder of Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence, she advocates for the educator’s perspective—a voice she felt was missing from the national stage.
Lerner emphasizes that while school shootings dominate the news, they represent only a sliver of the daily violence teachers and students navigate. “School shootings are such a small piece of gun violence. But they get the most media coverage,” she said, noting that educator voices must also address community violence, domestic abuse, and hate crimes.
Interventions
This sentiment was echoed by Dr. Daniel Webster, a leading expert on firearm policy from Johns Hopkins University. While policy responses often stall at the federal level, Dr. Webster underscores the success of community-led initiatives in cities like Baltimore and New York.
“I can basically just agree with Dr. Webster. This is preventable,” Dr. Girgis noted, emphasizing that the focus must shift toward actionable, evidence-based interventions.
Trauma-informed journalism
The panel also touched on the responsibility of the media in shaping these narratives. Lerner, who advises the yearbook and newspaper at her school, advocates for “trauma-informed journalism.” She recalled her own reluctance to speak with certain outlets after the Parkland shooting due to unprofessionalism. “How you speak to a survivor, how you speak to the families of victims … it makes a difference,” she said.
As the U.S. continues to grapple with its unique relationship with firearms, the message from this panel of experts is one of cautious urgency. Preventing the next tragedy requires looking at mental illness and toward the complex web of policy, access, and community support that defines the American experience with gun violence.