• Health & Wellness

    Mayo Clinic Psychiatrist Offers Editorial on Report:Taking guns away from mentally ill won’t eliminate mass shootings

A string of public mass shootings during the past decade-plus have rocked America, leaving policymakers and mental health experts alike looking for solutions to prevent these heinous crimes. A Mayo Clinic physician, however, says that at least one effort won’t stop the public massacres: restricting gun access to the mentally ill. Psychiatrist and author of the editorial published online in Mayo Clinic Proceedings Dr. J. Michael Bostwick, M.D., argues several points including that mass shootings are carefully planned – often spanning weeks or months. He says there is plenty of time for a meticulous planner and determined killer to get a gun somewhere in that time.

Dr. Bostwick’s editorial is a commentary on an essay in the same issue of Proceedings titled “Guns, Schools, and Mental Illness: Potential Concerns for Physicians and Mental Health Professionals.”

Read news release.

Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Bostwick are available in the downloads.