Violence and evilness should not be equated with mental illness. As we have seen, in cases of mass murders perpetrated by white men, many are quick to jump to the not-yet-proven conclusion that he was "sick" or "mentally ill." Some would argue that we (Americans) have accepted this fame or idea that if a white man kills en mass that he must be mentally ill or that there's a “loose wire” somewhere, because (obviously) people — in this case white men — of sound mind simply aren’t capable of such violence.
But you see, this is based on the assumption that people of sound mind are incapable of violence and evilness, which is just not true. We quite literally have separate prisons and criminal justice procedures for offenders who aren't of sound mind, and those people comprise a small minority of America's violent crime offenders.
The complaint from the other side is that commentators and politicians alike are all too quick to jump to the conclusion of a perpetrator being mentally ill because they’re unwilling accept or acknowledge the possibility that white men can be disastrously violent while being of sound mind. But as many would note, we don't as often afford this "excuse" to people of color. In those cases, where the perpetrator is of color, many might assume that violence is part of his nature -- the norm rather than the exception.
But what I've found in this debate that there are actually kind and well meaning people who sincerely believe that someone capable of killing 50+ people must be mentally ill. In this instance, these well-meaning people aren't trying to advance any racial frame or sense of white supremacy; rather, they’re simply relying what some might call naiveté.
Meanwhile, I understand why good, decent, law-abiding citizens like most Americans would struggle to believe that someone could perpetrate such senseless acts of violence without having a "loose wire" of sorts. But I feel the need to push back on this, even if just a little. And forgive me for using such extreme examples, but -- as political scientists can appreciate -- the law of extremes is sometimes the easiest way to disprove a hypothesis:
We would never say that members of ISIS or Al Qaeda were mentally ill. In their case, there is a degree of socialization and indoctrination involved. They're drawn to terrorism because of personal or virtual experiences of loss — whether of home or of life — which fuels deep anger, hatred, and general disregard for human life. This might be in response to our own foreign policies and campaigns (like drone strikes and resultant civilian casualties) or wars in the Middle East. Whatever the reason, you can trust that it's not because of mental illness.
To use other examples: You would never say that every Nazi officer posted at a concentration camp or Slave owners in the American South were mentally ill. Similarly, mob bosses and gang members are not mentally ill. The absolute disregard for human life is not a mental illness, it's a human condition that I think all of us are capable of assuming if given the right stimulus or put in the right context or situation.
This is why we have laws. Our laws act as social constraints on our behavior. However unfortunate, our reality is such that there are those amongst us who do not respect our laws. They’re not mentally ill, they’re just criminals.
In the case of the Vegas shooting, it's been reported that the stimulus for Stephen Paddock might have been the loss of gambled monies. If true, it would only go to suggest that his anger fueled by the loss of money overpowered and broke the social constraints that our society imposes on his behavior, which has little to nothing to do with mental illness, but merely his state of mind.
That said, it would be wildly inaccurate for us to continue to assume mental illness in all cases of "lone wolves" or white male perpetrators of mass violence when there are countless examples of humans (regardless of color) inflicting unfathomable and senseless violence on their fellow man for whatever reason, none of which are related to mental illness.