If a person has a thought of slaughtering other people, whether it’s one or many, something is wrong with them mentally, bottom line. Nothing excuses it, nothing else can explain it away. So the one and only cause for mass shootings is mental illness.
By that standard, virtually the entire human race has something wrong with them, mentally. According to various experts, noted authors, and our general religious belief systems EVERYONE has those kinds of THOUGHTS, at some point in their lives. Also suicide, just about everyone considers it, AS A THOUGHT at some point in their lives.
It is NORMAL.
Having such thoughts, as brief passing fantasies is normal, and healthy. DOING something that turns such thoughts into reality is not. Having such thoughts does NOT make one mentally ill. ACTING on them, does.
I think that saying "the one and only cause for mass shootings is mental illness" is just as simplistic and just as WRONG as saying "the one and only cause for mass shootings is a gun".
The big problem with saying "caused by mental illness" is the way we speak means everyone has a different idea of what mental illness is. Anyone who does something someone considers "crazy" is deemed "mentally ill". It is just too broad a brush to have any real meaning.
Some people consider anyone who owns a gun to be mentally ill. Some people think anyone who puts on a uniform must be mentally ill.
I think anyone who happens to like strawberry ice cream, or GLock pistols is mentally ill. But they sure do sell a lot of them...
There are still people alive who remember a time when homosexuality was a listed mental illness in medical books.
For a long, long time, dissidents in the Soviet Union were not classed as criminals, they were officially "mentally ill" and were given "treatment".
If there is one defense I think should not be allowed in our criminal justice system, I think it is the "insanity" defense. Not knowing right from wrong (or being able to fool people into thinking you don't know right from wrong) does not in any way change what happened.
I will allow for differences in punishment, and in cases of actual mental incompetence, treatment in lieu of punishment, but if they did the act, they DID the act, and it makes NO difference to the victims why they did the act. I'm fine with a ruling of GUILTY, by reason of insanity, and something other than regular prison because of that. Why don't we even consider that??