Sen. D-Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said Kennedy should be fired after suggesting that the antidepressants played a role in the August 27 shooting at a Catholic school.
Father’s emotional account of Minneapolis Church shooting
Pedro Maldonado shared the moment he spotted a child after being shot at a Minneapolis Catholic school.
- “We need to explain why this violence is happening and we need to look at all possibilities,” Kennedy said.
- A 2019 survey found that most school shooters didn’t appear to have been prescribed psychotropic drugs and had not discovered a “causal relationship.”
- “I’m going to tell you that you go to announcement school and tell our sad community. In effect, guns don’t kill children, antidepressants do,” Smith wrote to Kennedy on social media.
- Two children have been killed and 18 people were injured in the attack at the Announcement Catholic School in Minneapolis.
Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his agency would study whether antidepressants and other psychotic drugs “may contribute to violence,” as a result of the Minneapolis School shooting, urging Minnesota senators to accus the Minnesota senator of “selling bulls.”
Kennedy said in an interview with Fox News that HHS is looking at a group of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and “some of other psychotic drugs.” The Health Secretary has long raised concerns about SSRIs and has linked them to school shootings.
A 2019 survey found that most school shooters did not appear to have been prescribed psychotropic drugs and that the predicted drug “no direct or causal relationships found.”
Sen. D-Minnesota, Sen. Tina Smith, said Kennedy was focusing on the wrong issues.
“I’m going to announce school and trying to tell our sad community. In effect, guns don’t kill children, antidepressants do,” Smith wrote on social media. “Just shut up. Stop selling bulls. You should be fired.”
Police say 23-year-old Robin Westman opened fire at an Announcement Catholic School, killing two children and injuring 18 people. According to media reports, Westman has written in a journal about suffering from depression and having thoughts about suicide and murder. It is unknown if Westman is taking psychotics.
“We need to explain why this violence is happening and we need to look at all possible possibilities,” Kennedy said on Fox.
Democrats have raised concerns about access to guns in the wake of yet another shooting.
“There are 400 million guns in this country,” Smith wrote on social media. “More guns than people. In America, we are 10 times more likely to be shot in schools or playgrounds than any other developed country.”
“People have guns in this country forever,” Kennedy said at an August 28 press conference in Texas.
“Something changed and it dramatically changed human behavior. And one of the perpetrators we need to consider is whether the fact that we are the most overrecognised country in the world,” he added.
Some conservatives also focus on Westman’s gender identity.
According to media reports, Westman’s name was legally changed to Robin because the judge wrote, “identifies minor children as women.” Kennedy’s Fox News comments were prompted by questions about Westman’s male-to-female transition process.
“Everyone who uses this as an opportunity to exacerbate our trans community and other communities there has lost a common sense of humanity,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a press conference.
Kennedy has been a longtime vaccine skeptic, and his views on some of his health issues are considered fringes by mainstream experts. His tenure as the country’s finest health officer is tumultuous. He attempts to kick out the center of Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monares amidst a disagreement on policy, but she refuses to resign.
Just as less than a month has passed since the Senate confirmed her role, Monares’ contested expulsion urged the three other CDC staff to resign in protest of Kennedy’s leaders, including his instructions on the vaccine.
Contributors: Ben Adler, Joey Garrison
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
