CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) — While the country recovers from two mass shootings in 10 days, the national conversation is turning to two topics: gun access and mental health.
In a news conference Wednesday, Texas governor Greg Abbott placed the blame for the shooting at an elementary school in his state on mental health issues.
“We as a state, we as a society need to do a better job with mental health,” the Republican governor said Wednesday in a news conference, according to ABC News. “Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and to do something about it.”
However, those who advocate against gun violence, like Rev. Jennifer Copeland of the North Carolina Council of Churches, said blaming mental health is an easy way out.
“I think they’re both very important issues, but to blame all gun deaths on a mental health problem is to miss the point,” Copeland said. “The reason we have so many gun deaths in this country is because we have so many guns out here.”
