Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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As US health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has drawn a lot of attention for promoting pseudoscience and disproven theories, especially on vaccines. He is using that playbook on another major public health issue: gun violence, which remains the leading cause of death for kids in America. When it comes to school shootings and other mass shootings, here’s what RFK Jr. wants you to believe: It’s not the guns, he argues, it’s the pills.
The fringe theory that antidepressants can cause people to turn violent has been around for decades, focused primarily on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which are the most common class of these drugs. But extensive research on the theory by mental health and violence prevention experts has found no credible evidence that antidepressants cause or contribute to mass shootings.
In this video, Mark Follman, Mother Jones editor and author of “Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America," reveals how RFK Jr. has been using his top government post to continue spreading the failed theory—a misinformation campaign in which RFK Jr. makes at least a half dozen false or misleading claims about guns, psychiatric drugs, and mass shootings.
#guns #rfkjr #mentalhealth
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► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com
As US health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has drawn a lot of attention for promoting pseudoscience and disproven theories, especially on vaccines. He is using that playbook on another major public health issue: gun violence, which remains the leading cause of death for kids in America. When it comes to school shootings and other mass shootings, here’s what RFK Jr. wants you to believe: It’s not the guns, he argues, it’s the pills.
The fringe theory that antidepressants can cause people to turn violent has been around for decades, focused primarily on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, which are the most common class of these drugs. But extensive research on the theory by mental health and violence prevention experts has found no credible evidence that antidepressants cause or contribute to mass shootings.
In this video, Mark Follman, Mother Jones editor and author of “Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America," reveals how RFK Jr. has been using his top government post to continue spreading the failed theory—a misinformation campaign in which RFK Jr. makes at least a half dozen false or misleading claims about guns, psychiatric drugs, and mass shootings.
#guns #rfkjr #mentalhealth
--
For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com
Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones
Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones
Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
