This past weekend, mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio killed at least 30 people and injured over 50 more. These mass shootings, the 16th and 17th in the United States this year this year, took place amidst a continued crisis of white supremacism in the US; while the administration promotes xenophobia and the President calls immigrants less than human; and in a political climate in which we have repeatedly failed to address the prevalence & availability of deadly firearms. Our hearts are with the victims, their families, and their communities.
Speaking
this morning about these mass shootings, President Trump said that mass
shootings are carried out by “mentally ill monsters†and claimed that
in order to prevent them, we must “reform our mental health laws to
better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of
violence and make sure these people not only get treatment but, when
necessary, involuntary confinement.†These remarks are a blatant attempt
to target and scapegoat people with disabilities in order to distract
from the active role our President himself has played in inciting
anti-immigrant sentiment and white supremacist violence. ASAN calls on
policymakers and the American public not to be taken in by this
dangerous rhetoric, but to insist on real, meaningful change.
Blaming
mass shootings on people with mental health disabilities has become so
routine that yesterday, the American Psychiatric Association issued a statement
warning against blaming mental illness for “a public health crisis of
gun violence fueled by racism, bigotry and hatred.†As the APA points
out, people with mental health disabilities are far more likely to be
victims of violence than to be perpetrators. The overwhelming majority
of gun violence is carried out by nondisabled people; we cannot fight
gun violence or racism by monitoring and institutionalizing people with
disabilities. We urge everyone to educate themselves on this issue so
that we as a nation can stay focused on working towards real solutions.
When we examine the evidence,
it is easy to see that enacting legislation making it easier to surveil
and institutionalize people with mental health disabilities, as the
President has suggested, would not prevent gun violence. Instead, it
would threaten the civil rights of the 1 in 5 Americans with mental
health disabilities. People with disabilities have fought for decades
for our right to live in our communities and make our own decisions
about our housing and health care. As centuries of failed U.S. policies
demonstrate, denying us these rights means abandoning us to abuse,
neglect and segregation. The results of the President’s proposal would
be catastrophic; not only for the disability community, but for our
nation as a whole, because it would allow gun violence to continue
unchecked.
When
the President of the United States scapegoats the disability community
instead of reckoning with white supremacy, he knows exactly what he is
doing. He knows that his talking points, reprehensible as they may be,
line up with common societal prejudices which allow him to distract from
the issues at hand. It is incumbent upon all of us to refuse to play
along. We must educate each other;
denounce white supremacy; stand up for our friends, family &
neighbors with mental health disabilities; and advocate for real
solutions to gun violence, racism and xenophobia. We call on our elected
officials at all levels of government to do the same.
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’s members and supporters include autistic adults and youth, cross-disability advocates, and non-autistic family members, professionals, educators, and friends.