{"id":3425,"date":"2019-10-24T04:43:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T08:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/?p=3425"},"modified":"2019-10-24T05:05:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T09:05:09","slug":"gun-violence-blaming-the-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/2019\/10\/24\/gun-violence-blaming-the-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Gun Violence: Blaming the Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

I post here the statement issued by ASAN<\/a><\/strong> opposing the legislation introduced into the US Senate to blame gun violence on “mental illness” when the problem, it is plain to see, is too many guns. People with mental health disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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ASAN Opposes the RESPONSE Act<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

October 23, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASAN condemns the introduction of the RESPONSE Act in the Senate. While this bill frames itself as an attempt to prevent gun violence, in reality, this legislation does not address gun violence at all. Instead, it yet again scapegoats people with mental health disabilities. It is impossible to address the issue of gun violence when these conversations come at the cost of the civil rights of the 1 in 5 Americans with mental health disabilities. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RESPONSE Act, in fact, is not a meaningful response to gun violence at all. It focuses almost solely on expanding and funding coercive mental health programs, while failing to address virtually any factors that actually contribute to gun violence. The legislation instead focuses on making it easier to surveil and institutionalize people with mental health disabilities who are deemed a \u201cthreat\u201d to others. The bill proposes funding for forced treatment of people with mental health disabilities, and sets the groundwork for expanded \u201cthreat assessments\u201d in schools. \u201cThreat assessments\u201d are inherently discriminatory attempts to identify students seen as at \u201cpotential risk\u201d of committing gun violence and use \u201cbehavioral intervention teams\u201d to continually discipline and surveil these students. These practices have already been shown to marginalize students of color and students with disabilities, forcing students out of school<\/a> and further contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. None of these proposals will impact gun violence; they will only cost people with disabilities our civil rights.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evidence<\/a> is clear: there is no relationship between mental health disability and gun violence. By conflating these issues, the Senate is distracting from efforts to create real change on gun safety. ASAN calls on our allies in Congress to hold the line, educate their colleagues about how this legislation harms people with mental health disabilities, and ensure this bill never moves forward. The time has come for our elected officials to stop scapegoating the disability community and work towards real change to end gun violence.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by and for autistic people. ASAN was created to serve as a national grassroots disability rights organization for the autistic community run by and for autistic Americans, advocating for systems change and ensuring that the voices of autistic people are heard in policy debates and the halls of power. Our staff work to educate communities, support self-advocacy in all its forms, and improve public perceptions of autism. ASAN\u2019s members and supporters include autistic adults and youth, cross-disability advocates, and non-autistic family members, professionals, educators, and friends.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I post here the statement issued by ASAN opposing the legislation introduced into the US Senate to blame gun violence on “mental illness” when the problem, it is plain to see, is too many guns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3425"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3433,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions\/3433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}