GUNS/MENTAL HEALTH/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Thursday [8-15-19] advocated the return of more mental health institutions to combat gun violence, while also throwing his support behind background checks for gun purchases. Speaking with reporters in New Jersey before heading to a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump said that mental health was an under-considered factor in gun violence and that his administration would examine it ‘at a level that hasn’t been done before’…Mental illness is a frequent talking point among Republican lawmakers when dealing with gun violence, to the consternation of their Democratic counterparts, who argue that the United States’ unique, widespread access to guns is to blame. Critics of the idea that mental illness leads to gun violence also argue that it stigmatizes mental illness and reinforces the unproven idea that mental health correlates with violence. Trump argued that institutions for people with mental illness — whom ‘we can’t let … be on the streets’ — were necessary to curb gun violence.”
–Matthew Choi, “‘We have to start building institutions again’: Trump again links guns and mental health,” Politico, August 15, 2019 8:52 pm