by Joshua Blake

Something had finally snapped within David Katz for him to hurt so many.

We hear over the news time and time again about mass shootings taking place all over the country more often then we should.

We had the Las Vegas shooting in October of 2017 and the Parkland school shooting in February of 2018. These two mass shootings combined took the lives of 75 people, leaving many more injured as well.

On Sunday, August 26th, another mass shooting took place at a Madden ’19 video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida. According to the Washington Post, David “Bread” Katz was the alleged shooter, leaving three dead and 11 people injured, as well as shooting himself at the end. Katz was proven to be mentally ill and on antidepressants, which is said to be the leading reason for why he committed this heinous act.

David Katz had an extensive history of dealing with mental health issues. According to CNN, Katz was receiving psychiatric treatment at the young age of 12 years old. He was prescribed psychiatric medication and saw several different doctors. A 2006 court filing stated that a therapist said Katz had once experienced a “psychiatric crisis.”

Katz had many incidents relating back to his mental illness as well, causing domestic disputes and having the police called to his residence on multiple occasions. Something had finally snapped within David Katz for him to ultimately hurt so many. Katz is just one of the many victims of mental illness to lash out and commit such horrible acts.

This mass shooting sparked yet again another debate on whether or not to ban guns in America. You have both sides of the argument, the more left-leaning people saying that the mass shooting took place because guns are legal and can be easily be acquired on the street.

Then you have people who lean towards the right side saying it was because the building that housed the tournament was a gun-free zone, therefore nobody had guns in the building to stop the shooter before he killed 2 people and injured many others.

Whether or not the guns are the problem, there is a much bigger problem at hand that no one is really talking about. That problem is the use of antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs. Most of the time these, mass shooters are mentally ill and the antidepressants they use takes away all their distress, leaving them alone in an emotionless state.

David Katz was one of these mentally ill people and shown to be on these antidepressants. According to Kelly Brogan M.D., the use of these drugs promotes suicidal and homicidal tendencies.

Also, according to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, 36 school shootings have been committed by those under the influence of antidepressant drugs. Therefore, these drugs have basically caused 172 injuries and 80 deaths and should not be given to any patient of any kind, due to the results we have had in the past.

This unfortunate event is just one of many recent mass shootings caused by antidepressants. These drugs completely wipe out all emotions from the user. Someone without empathy to see the value of a human life will not hesitate to kill anyone they see who they feel who has wronged them in any way.

We can stop these shootings from occurring, but we need to be aware of the cause of these terrible acts. We need to shift away our focus from debating on guns and start debating on antidepressants and how they have become more dangerous than any gun you could ever own.