Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar vowed that his agency would be “laser focused” on addressing untreated serious mental illness in response to a mass shooting this week in which a former student killed 17 people at a high school in Florida.
“The Department of Health and Human Services will be laser focused on this issue in the days, weeks and months to come,” Azar said. “And it has already been a priority under this administration.”
Officials in Parkland, Fla., haven’t announced if they have determined the cause behind the mass shooting by the 19-year-old gunman, Nikolas Cruz, who entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High with an AR-15 Wednesday. Cruz was captured by the authorities and has admitted to the killings.
In remarks delivered earlier in the day, President Trump addressed the shooting through the lens of mental health as well. He did not call for restrictions on gun access or call for medical research on gun violence, as some medical groups have urged.
“So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem.”
The Anti-Defamation League has said that Cruz had ties to a white supremacist group, but law enforcement officials have not said if they have confirmed the link. They have confirmed that Cruz was expelled from the school because of behavioral problems and had been living with a family friend following the death of his mother in November.
He had previously been reported to the FBI after posting comments about school shootings on YouTube, and several students described him as a “loner” or “troubled kid,” though it is not clear how well they knew him. Investigations of mass shootings can continue for months before final determinations are made by medical experts and law enforcement.
Still, Azar vowed that his agency would step up its mental health efforts and that it could work with local and state officials to make sure that people who have untreated mental illness can receive medical care, saying that too many people end up in prison or jail rather than in treatment.
“While most Americans with mental illness are not violent – in fact they are more likely to be victims of crimes themselves – we know that untreated serious mental illness can be associated with acts of violence like we saw yesterday,” he said.
Azar made the remarks ahead of a press conference he and other health officials held to discuss the flu season.
Earlier in the day, while appearing before a House committee to discuss the president’s budget, he said he believed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had the authority to study gun violence, saying that federal law prevented the agency from advocating against gun control, but not from carrying out scientific studies.
“We believe we’ve got a very important mission with our work with serious mental illness, as well as our ability to do research on the causes of violence and the causes behind tragedies like this, so that is a priority for us especially at the Centers for Disease Control,” he told House Democrats.
In response to his comments, the American Medical Association, the nation’s largest doctor group, called gun violence a “public health crisis in the United States” that “knows no geographic, political or social bounds.”
“We agree with Secretary Azar that the CDC has the authority to conduct this critical research into gun violence, and they should begin their work immediately,” said AMA President David O. Barbe. “An epidemiological analysis of gun violence is vital to address this public health crisis, so our society can take action and prevent injury, death, and other harms resulting from firearms.”
In recent years, about $11.1 million in grants have gone toward gun violence research, paid for by the National Institutes of Health. The CDC’s public health studies tend to be accompanied with recommendations, and the NRA has accused the agency of previously stepping into advocacy territory.
