That irrational acts correllate strongly with significant mental illness is obvious. But blaming psychiatric drugs for causing the effects of mental illness is like blaming plaster casts for broken bones.
I suspect that in 99.99% of cases, patients referred for mental health treatment who end up on “psyche drugs” have demonstrated mental illness beforehand. Psychiatric meds might be “overprescribed”, or not. Is there a basis for either assertion?
From observing the travails of local bipolar and other individuals on Prozac type meds, I could readily believe that:
1) it is very difficult to find the “right mix” of meds;
2) the “right mix” changes over time as the patients, especially young ones, age, react, and change biochemically;
3) the patients dislike the side effects and often manage not to take the drugs consistently or at all;
4) coming off the drugs is especially dangerous (here is where it might be argued that the drugs have a role in causing violent episodes, but that risks underevaluating what the patients might have done without meds);
5) psyche drugs don’t always work or work the same for all patients;
6) in a lot of cases, the desire to avoid institutionalizing the patient causes irrational expectations that drugs can fix an intractable problem; and,
7) we hear of the disasters, but the successes go unseen. What would be interesting are real stats on how many cases are out there, how many are “successfully” treated with meds compared to failures, etc.
Active unruly boys are diagnosed with mental disorders and are treated with medications that have severe side effects.
When I was growing up in the 1960’s boys played “guns” all the time(with toy guns). It was our favorite activity. Boys were often given bb guns. Remember A Christmas Story. Several of my friends growing up had them at the age of 9 or 10. Boys with fathers who hunted were often given hunting rifles at the age of 12 or 13. I remember being in 8th grade and a friend showing me his hunting rifle. Fathers took sons out hunting and boys shot guns.
When I was growing up there was not a single child I knew or had heard of who was seeing a psychiatrist or taking psych meds. There was no violence back then. People left their doors unlocked. Kids played outside all day with no adult supervision. Suicide rates for boys was far less than it is today.
These school shootings began in the 1990’s. Suicide rates among young boys increased at the same time. I don't pretend to know all the answers. But I do know psyche meds are readily offered to young boys. I don't think it is a good thing.