32 | JUNE 27 • 2024
J
N
J
une is National Gun
Violence Awareness
Month, marked during
this time to bring awareness as
we typically see gun violence
spike at the start of the summer
months. And this
year, the time is
especially poi-
gnant as we are
reeling from a
mass shooting at
a water park in
one of our nearby
communities.
Unfortunately,
we are becoming a nation where
gun violence is characterized
by psychotic breakdowns often
involving young men with weap-
ons who act on violent voices in
their heads telling them to do
horrible things to themselves
and others. “How did he get the
gun?” “Why didn’t anyone know
about his fragile mental condi-
tion?” “Where was the family?”
With school shootings alone,
we have been asking these ques-
tions of ourselves 404 times
since the first school shooting at
Columbine in 1999. What gets
lost is the mental health toll of
the more than 370,000 students
who have experienced gun vio-
lence at those schools.
Separately, over the past 20
years, the suicide rate for young
men using guns has risen even
higher than homicide rates.
Whether or not a shooting
makes headlines or appears
on national news, families
with children and adults with
mental illnesses are struggling
and need to find help. Recently,
the mother of a 9-year-old boy
called our clinic, desperate and
exhausted, needing help for her
son who was becoming more
agitated and paranoid by the
minute.
He couldn’t stop the voices
in his head telling him what
to do and not to do. He could
no longer sleep in his own bed
because he was terrified of
the noises in his head. He was
ostracized and bullied at school
by classmates who did not know
what to make of him.
The boy’s mother had spent
nine hours on the phone
searching for help and all she
could find was one outpatient
clinic that could see her son nine
days later. She didn’t know how
they would make it through the
night. However, when asked, she
admitted she had not thought
about removing her husband’s
gun from the home.
While parents and other
adults may feel strongly about
having a gun in the home for
self-defense, research from
Harvard Public Health showed
that gun owners and their fami-
lies are much more likely to kill
themselves than are those who
don’t own guns.
Knowing a gun is in the house
may strengthen a child’s decision
to act on their thoughts to harm
themselves or others, or they
may even cause harm to them-
selves accidentally if the guns in
the home are accessible to them.
Pew Research has stated that
though they tend to get less pub-
lic attention than gun-
related murders, suicides have
long accounted for the majori-
ty of U.S. gun deaths. In 2021,
54% of all gun-related deaths in
the U.S. were suicides (26,328),
while 43% were murders
(20,958), according to the CDC.
There are individuals with
mental illnesses doing their
best to cope with the voices and
impulses that haunt them, and
for children it is often while par-
ents are off at work or elsewhere,
having easy access to weapons
and other means of wreaking
devastating destruction; mean-
while they are trying to find
their way away from their own
internal chaotic confusion and
tortuous psychic pain.
Desperate for relief, these
individuals feel isolated and
hopeless. They resort to violence
to assert their distorted sense of
power over their powerlessness
and pain and, ultimately, we
all are the witnesses. Images of
superheroes and warriors who
annihilate to exert dominance
are the images our little boys
grow up cheering and idolizing.
Shame and lack of awareness
and education about mental
illness often stands in the way
of parents pursuing proper help
for their kids. Additionally,
mistaken perceptions that
“they will outgrow it” or “boys
will be boys” or “our guns are
safely locked away” are careless
remarks that ignore the gravity
of parental ignorance and
absence.
We cannot just hope things
will get better. Citizens have
more responsibility now than
ever before to do their part
to reduce the gun-related
tragedies and traumas we are
all experiencing. To begin to
make an impact, parents need
to be strong enough to ask their
kids the important questions,
have discussions as a family and
be brave enough to ask their
friends’ parents if they keep their
guns locked in their home while
your child is visiting there. It is
our collective responsibility to
become tireless advocates for
gun law reform.
It’s not just about guns; we
must also have a commitment
to ensuring that individuals
with mental illnesses receive
the help they need. Intensive
outpatient and inpatient
mental health treatment that is
affordable and lasts long enough
to make a difference must be
made available for anyone who
may be struggling with mental
illness. The least we can do is to
raise awareness that those with
mental illnesses should never
have access to guns.
Lori Kanat Edelson, LMSW, LMFT,
BCD, ACSW is a Licensed Clinical
Social Worker and Marriage and
Family Therapist, and the owner and
director of Birmingham Maple Clinic.
Birmingham Maple Clinic is an outpa-
tient mental health clinic in Oakland
County providing mental health treat-
ment to the community for 50 years.
It’s Not Just About Guns...
Lori Kanat
Edelson
Special to the
Jewish News
HEALTH
BART EVERSON