To the editor:

Regarding Patti Agustin’s letter of March 7, I hardly know where to start. How could two paragraphs be so offensive and so wrong in so many ways?!? 

For now, I will focus on the dangerous myths and misconceptions concerning mental health contained in this letter. First of all, people with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violence (including gun violence) than the perpetrators of it. In fact, being male or having a substance abuse issue are both higher risk factors for perpetrating gun violence than having a mental illness.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, mass shootings by people with serious mental illness represent less than 1 percent of all yearly gun-related homicides, and the overall contribution of people with serious mental illness to violent crimes is only about 3 percent. One analysis shows that if you were to suddenly cure schizophrenia, bipolar, and depression overnight, violent crime in the US would fall by only 4 percent. Reopening “mental institutions,” as Ms. Agustin puts it, aside from being prohibitively expensive and raising many ethical issues, would do very little to address the risk of gun violence anywhere—whether in schools, churches, or in homes.

There is a wealth of evidence available on how to reduce gun violence in schools—not by hardening our schools, but, as NPR recently reported, by softening them and putting into place upstream deterrents such as prevention, improved school climate, threat assessment, and more. Making guns harder to acquire is just the cornerstone of a comprehensive policy to keep not just our schools, but our communities as a whole, safer.

Erika Sevetson

Barrington