Almost 1 in 10 Americans has anger issues and access to guns, study finds

cbsnews.com ^ | Alan Mozes/

[BenLurkin]

Almost one in 10 Americans has a history of impulsive and angry behavior and ready access to guns, new research indicates.

The serious mental health issues that would legally prevent someone from purchasing a gun -- such as involuntary commitment to a psychiatric ward for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder -- only account for about 4 percent of U.S. gun violence, noted study author Jeffrey Swanson.

"There is a potentially much larger group of individuals in our society who struggle with pathological impulsive and destructive anger that would not normally turn up as serious mental illness on a background check," said Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.

Yet these people -- mostly young or middle-aged men -- break and smash things and get into fights when they get angry, his study found.

The study of more than 5,600 adults found that 8.9 percent of them were admittedly short-fused people who had guns at home, "which I would say is something of a wake-up call," Swanson said. And 1.5 percent of them also carried their guns outside the home.

[amnestynone]

Just think about all of the people who are angry at CBS and have guns.

[Talisker]

"There is a potentially much larger group of individuals in our society who struggle with pathological impulsive and destructive anger that would not normally turn up as serious mental illness on a background check," said Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.

What level of pathological destructive anger does it take to use one's medical degree in order to help disarm 300 million people so that a totalitarian philosophy based on gulags and mass murder can take over? Or doesn't it count as much because it is methodically planned instead of being impulsive?

[freedom6178]

[Almost one in 10 Americans has a history of impulsive and angry behavior and ready access to guns]

Then quit making us angry.

[mdmathis6]

I think the issue begs the question....People arm themselves because they know there are people out there with anger issues...many of these people also want to steal your stuff and rape your women as well. That is why more rational people will also buy guns, they don’t want to be hurt by the people with anger issues!

[BBell]

306,000 Divided by 10 = 30,600

Stopped reading right there.

[Pontiac]

The study of more than 5,600 adults found that 8.9 percent of them were admittedly short-fused people who had guns at home, "which I would say is something of a wake-up call," Swanson said. And 1.5 percent of them also carried their guns outside the home.

OK so what.

Do they really believe that those numbers have changed over time?

The vast majority of those people will never use a gun in violence. If they do they will go to jail just like they always have.

These people that break things usually break their own things. If they break other people’s things they either agree to replace them or the owners of those things file charges and again they go to jail.

There is no Earth shaking breakthrough in the understanding of human beings here. People get angry and sometime lose their temper. Wow, that is fascinating! Alter the press! /S

[BBell]

"More than 306,000 people have died in a domestic setting as the result of a gun shot, whether homicide, suicide or accident, over the last 10 years," Swanson said.

Not a mathematician this person.

[Arm_Bears]

What concerns me more is the idiot with anger issues in the White Hut who has access to the nuclear arsenal of the US.

[Da Coyote]

A statistic.

Coming from the Communist Broadcasting System.

Consisting of folks to whom elementary math is akin to tensors.

Feggedabowdit!

[stephenjohnbanker]

” “Anger issues”. Love the highly scientific clinical lingo. WTF DOES IT MEAN!?”

Kinda like “climate change” : )

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Thank god...

[Mastador1]

I just don’t believe there are that many cops in America!

[pilipo]

Yet another example of where a picture (or video) is worth 10 to nth in words.

Thanks for the lift.

[Chode]

this from a guy what doesn't think faggotry is a mental disorder... feh

[MichaelCorleone]

Did that really happen?

[G Larry]

ya....anybody who is NOT angry about losing our God given freedoms and the constant destruction of our Constitution, needs their head examined....

[SWAMPSNIPER]

"Mostly young or middle-aged men -- break and smash things and get into fights when they get angry"?

Doesn't sound like NRA members to me!

Political correctness is blocking the solution of more than a few of our social problems.

[Breto]

We have a president that has anger issues and he has acess to nuclear weapons.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yeh a Muslim Communist in the Whitehouse destroying the entire country. I’d say 8.9% pizzed off people sounds low to me. :-)

[backwoods-engineer]

I'm angry at what these totalitarians, fascists, and communists (I repeat myself) have done to my country. And I have guns aplenty. That means two things: 1) I won't obey unconstitutional laws, and 2) I can defend myself if attacked.

If the news media reads anything else into it, it's their fertile imaginations at work, not my intent.