Several recent mass shootings in the United States have prompted calls to address untreated serious mental illness. This rhetoric—delivered by policy makers, journalists, and the public—focuses the blame for mass shootings on individuals with serious mental illness (specifically, schizophrenia and psychotic spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder), with less attention paid to other contributory factors, such as access to firearms.¹ Furthermore, attributing mass shootings to untreated serious mental illness stigmatizes an already vulnerable and marginalized population, fails to identify individuals at the highest risk for committing violence with firearms, and distracts public attention from policy changes that are most likely to reduce the risk of gun violence.

美国最近发生的几起大规模枪击事件促使人们呼吁解决未经治疗的严重精神疾病。由政策制定者，记者和公众发表的这种言论将大量枪击的责任集中在患有严重精神疾病（特别是精神分裂症和精神病谱系障碍，躁郁症和重度抑郁症）的人身上，而对其他人的关注则较少促成因素，例如使用枪支。¹此外，将大规模枪击事件归因于未经治疗的严重精神疾病，这已经使本来就脆弱和处于边缘地位的人口蒙受耻辱，无法确定最容易遭受枪支暴力的个人，并分散了公众对最可能降低枪支风险的政策调整的关注暴力。