Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith (D) blasted Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday after he advised psychiatric medicine given to youngsters might partly be guilty for college shootings.
“I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don’t kill kids, antidepressants do,” Smith wrote on the social platform X on Tuesday, simply greater than 24 hours after a lethal college taking pictures in Minneapolis. “Just shut up. Stop peddling bulls‑‑‑. You should be fired.”
Kennedy has lengthy argued selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a category of antidepressants that improve serotonin and elevate temper, are overprescribed, notably for kids.
“Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade requested Kennedy if his company was wanting into the likelihood that psychiatric medicine used to deal with gender dysphoria have been partly guilty for mass shootings.
Robin Westman, the 23-year-old suspect within the Minnesota taking pictures that killed 2 youngsters, was assigned male at delivery and utilized for a reputation change at 17 to mirror a feminine id, in keeping with court docket data. Some conservatives on-line have seized on Westman’s gender id to painting transgender individuals as mentally sick.
Responding to Kilmeade, Kennedy stated his company was “launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.”
SSRIs will not be used to deal with gender dysphoria particularly however will be prescribed for melancholy, nervousness, and different temper problems which are skilled at notably excessive charges amongst transgender individuals.
Kennedy has additionally promoted the unfounded concept that chemical compounds within the atmosphere are contributing to boys experiencing gender dysphoria.
Wednesday’s taking pictures has reignited a nationwide debate over gun management, psychological well being and college security as tens of hundreds of thousands of scholars get set to return to school rooms this fall.
Smith and different Democrats say the main target of many conservatives on psychological well being and antidepressants is a distraction from the most important drawback: easy accessibility to high-powered firearms.
“There are 400 million guns in this country. More guns than people. In America, we are ten times more likely to be shot in a school or playground than any other developed nation,” Smith stated in one other X put up.
