Will the Real Crazy Ones Please Stand Up
Dismissing things we don’t like as ‘insane’ is doing the oppressors’ work for them.
Editor’s note: This article was written prior to a recent, very high-profile shooting and was rescheduled to shift it out of the immediate discourse surrounding that event. While it discusses political violence in the United States, it is not a direct engagement with that event!
In the aftermath of every mass shooting, there’s an immediate rush to assign blame despite the fact that Republicans are quick to tell us it’s “too soon” to “politicize.” As seen recently, rhetoric surrounding the “violent left” and trans women is starting to play a big role in those conversations, but now and historically, “insanity” is often thrown around, suggesting the way to stop these acts of mass violence is to control mentally ill people. As if an increase of surveillance capitalism, medical incarceration, coerced treatment, and incredible violations of privacy will make this problem—this distinctly American evil—go away. Because obviously it’s the fault of mentally ill people and nothing else that might be happening in the United States.
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If we want to address the epidemic of gun violence in the United States, we first need to understand what is actually happening with guns in America. Fifty-eight percent of gun deaths in the United States are suicides. A small number are “accidents” or involve unclear circumstances. Very few of the murders are mass shootings, and of the remainder, the majority are not headline-grabbing events: They involve domestic violence. This is a country where the leading cause of death in pregnancy is homicide, often by gun. Despite the “domestic” in the name, this violence doesn’t usually stay behind the walls of the home. In cases where mass shootings occur in the workplace, for example, they often involve an abusive partner or family member who followed someone to work.
But, okay, let’s talk about who’s doing the mass shootings.