After what used to be called a “homicidal maniac” strikes, mainstream-news coverage typically fills with condemnations of guns. But then, as details typically show the event does not fit anti-gun narratives, instead of following the story to actual answers, gun-control supporters in the media and politics feign surprise that nothing is “being done about guns.” They then blame the NRA for stopping “common-sense” infringements and await their next chance to make the same political argument.
Despite this, some agencies are now looking in another direction. They are asking if medications, such as anti-depressants or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)—Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft are SSRIs—might have something to do with at least some of these killers' actions?
Sexual dysfunction, severe anxiety, a reduction in emotional empathy, suicidal ideation and other worrying possible side effects are associated with these medications. These side effects might be statistically rare, but so are non-gang-related mass-murder attacks.
These medications are common. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study from 2015-2018 found that 13.2% of Americans (or about 44 million) had taken an SSRI in the past month. If just a tiny fraction of those on these medications have side effects severe enough to make them more likely to harm themselves or others, then this is something doctors and the public need to be aware of—if only to be more careful with these prescriptions.
These questions are now being asked by the state of Tennessee and by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Tennessee law, which passed last spring, requires medical examiners to test dead mass murderers for psychotropic and gender-altering drugs. The University of Tennessee’s Health Science Center will then study any potential interactions between those drugs and any other drugs found in their bodies.
Kennedy also said his agency will study whether anti-depressants and other psychiatric drugs “might be contributing to violence.”
“We need to explain why all this violence is happening and we need to look at every possibility,” said Kennedy on FOX News.
Politicians who want to ban guns were quick to criticize these inquiries.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) linked to an interview with Kennedy on FOX and wrote on X: “I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don’t kill kids, antidepressants do. Just shut up. Stop peddling bulls---. You should be fired.”
Many media outlets also noted that a 2019 CDC study found that most school mass murderers don’t appear to have been prescribed psychotropic drugs, which include SSRIs, and “when they were, no direct or causal association was found.”
As that CDC study was completed six years ago, any reasonable person might want to know whether the researchers got it right; after all, the CDC Foundation has taken millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies.
Still, this issue only received a little media coverage. But when it leaked that some in the Trump administration had discussed whether those with gender dysphoria should be considered “mentally unfit” to own firearms, the media went apoplectic.
The NRA soon responded by saying it is opposed to “any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.”
Many in the mainstream media seemed surprised by this response, but this position is clearly in step with the NRA’s mission and history.
