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Guns and mental health: Local sheriffs weigh in on Obama's executive actions for gun control

Tiger, The: Clemson University (SC) - 1/13/2016

Photo contributed by: Geoffry Graves

Two Upstate sheriffs recently addressed the effectiveness of President Obama's new executive actions for gun regulation. Speaking to the Anderson Independent Mail regarding the provision for background checks, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said, "I don't think it's going to help like he thinks it is." Although Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper expressed support for universal background checks, he is skeptical toward the impact of such laws on the black market.

The president's actions were formed in response to over 100,000 deaths due to gun violence since 2005 and congressional inaction on expanding background checks. "[T]he President continues to call on Congress to pass the kind of commonsense gun safety reforms supported by a majority of the American people," says a whitehouse.gov fact sheet, noting that legislation is also necessary to address gun violence. The actions include requiring all gun dealers to obtain a license and conduct background checks; hiring 200 ATF agents and investigators to better enforce current gun laws; and directing the Departments of Defense, Justice and Homeland Security to research, develop and promote new gun technology.

Arguing that Obama's proposals for background checks will fall short of their intended effects, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said, "We're fooling ourselves if we concentrate on new gun laws and ignore the problem of mental health."

One of Obama's executive actions is to invest $500 million to improve mental health care. Because Congress approves funding via appropriations bills during the budget process, the measure may need

congressional approval.

According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (DMH), 17 community-based, outpatient mental health centers serve about 100,000 patients annually. This averages to nearly 6,000 patients per center. Anderson-Oconee-Pickens Mental Health Center (AOPMHC) has four locations for an area with a total population of 388,000 people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Funding plays a crucial role in providing access to any public service. A 2014 DMH report shows that between 2009 and 2012, state appropriations to DMH decreased by approximately 40 percent. Though its budget increased by 44 percent between 2012 and 2015, the DMH still received less in funding in 2015 than in 2009.

Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper echoed Clark in saying that changes to background checks would not prevent school shootings and more focus needs to be placed on mental health and treating substance abuse.

However, the correlation between mental illness and violent crime is nearly zero. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) states, "Most people with mental illness are not violent and only 3%-5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness," who are actually over 10 times more likely than the general population to be victimized by violent crime.

"I would agree with those statistics," said Skipper, clarifying his comments to the Independent Mail.

Approximately 4.5 percent of South Carolinians suffer from a serious mental illness, which is higher than the national average and totals over 200,000 people. Skipper reiterated, "mental health is a problem we need to address," but that he wouldn't "put the mental health world into that category [of violent criminals]."

Gun violence in SC compared to national statistics indicate more variability. In 2013, the number of gun homicides in SC was 47 percent higher than in the U.S., which makes SC the fourth deadliest state for gun homicide. From 2012 to 2015, there was an approximately 44 percent increase in funding for SCDMH.

Despite the funding increase, SC has risen from the 18th to the 11th deadliest gun state.

Gun ownership is popular in SC. A study in the journal Injury Prevention found that 44 percent of South Carolinians own at least one firearm. "The Air Rifle Team is proud of our right to bear arms," said president of the Clemson Air Rifle Team (ART) Rachel M. Mangan. ART focuses on marksmanship, safety training and competitions. Mangan said that ART supports firearm safety "by visiting multiple high schools every semester to train their teams in safe shooting skills."

Chief Hendricks of the Clemson University Police Department noted that on campus safety is a top priority and possession of a firearm on campus is a felony in SC. However, individuals with Concealed Weapons Permits can legally possess firearms on campus if they "remain inside an attended or locked motor vehicle and is secured in a closed glove compartment, closed console, closed trunk, or in a closed container secured by an integral fastener and transported in the luggage compartment of the vehicle."

Sheriff Skipper, who teaches Concealed Weapons Permit (CWP) classes, advises the public to get some form of gun-safety training when they buy a gun. For information on CWP classes, visit http://www.sled.sc.gov/.