Kiera
Butler
Wednesday, April 08, 2015, 4:14 am
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In
the United States, most people diagnosed with mental illness are
allowed to buy guns. While state laws vary, federal law prohibits
only those who have been committed to a psychiatric hospital or
adjudicated as "mental defectives" from owning firearms.
.
But
researchers at Duke University suspect that the law is ignoring a
group of Americans who could make for potentially dangerous gun
owners: people with a history of angry, impulsive outbursts. In a
study published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Behavioral
Sciences and the Law, the Duke team looked at more than 5,500
interviews conducted in a landmark survey of mental illness by
Harvard researchers. From the interviews, they extrapolated that 1 in
10 adults in the United States has an anger management problem—and
access to firearms.
.
One
caveat: While it makes intuitive sense that angry people and guns
would be a volatile combination, it's important to note that there is
no data yet on whether people with anger problems are more likely to
commit violent crimes. Still, lead author Jeffrey Swanson believes
that the finding is worrisome. "Probably the strongest predictor
of violence is previous violent behavior," says Swanson, a
professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke Medicine.
.
Swanson
points to the recent shootings of three students at North Carolina
State University. The alleged shooter, Craig Stephen Hicks, had a
history of threatening behavior. "People who knew him said that
he was very angry; they were scared of him," says Swanson.
.
And
yet, in most states, even people who have committed violent
misdemeanors or have had restraining orders issued against them for
domestic violence are allowed to own guns.
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Meanwhile,
people with the types of severe psychiatric problems that lead to
involuntary commitment, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,
commit just 4 percent of violent crimes in the United States. Most
people with those acute conditions are not prone to violence.
.
However,
Swanson doesn't believe that isolated incidents of anger should
prevent people from buying guns—everyone gets angry once in a
while. But "the group that we focus on goes far beyond regular
anger," he says. "These individuals are off on the
extreme." They often get into physical fights and break or smash
things when they become upset.
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