Seems like the media likes to point the blame at almost everything else except these terrible medications.  Antidepressants are known to raise suicidal thoughts and increase harm to others yet this is always quickly brushed aside when these shootings happen.

"There have been too many mass shootings for it just to be a coincidence.  Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve students and a teacher at Columbine High School.   Eric was on Luvox, an antidepressant.  The Virginia Tech shooter killed thirty-two people and he was on an antidepressant.  While withdrawing from Prozac, Kip Kinkel murdered his mother and stepmother.  He then shot twenty-two classmates and killed two.  Jason Hoffman wounded five at his high school while he was on Effexor, also an antidepressant.  James Holmes opened fire in a Colorado movie theater this past summer and killed twelve people and wounded fifty-eight.  He was under the care of a psychiatrist but no information has been released as to what drug he must have been on."

http://www.cchrflorida.org/blog/antidepressants-are-a-prescription-for-mass-shootings/

"Last July 20, James Holmes walked into a midnight showing of the latest "Batman" movie in Aurora, Colo., and opened fire, killing 12 and wounding 58, police said. The Denver Post reported Holmes was taking generic Zoloft, an SSRI."

http://www.wpbf.com/news/health/ssri-antidepressants-linked-to-mass-shootings/-/8788734/20036082/-/7cldhwz/-/index.html

Australia kind of throws this under the bus a little considering they haven't had a mass shooting since they enacted stiff gun laws. Perhaps they aren't drowning in prescription medication like Americans either.  I believe the combination of easy access to guns and taking of these medications leads to a prescription of mass shootings.

Because there's a more plausible link between mental illness and violence than between antidepressants and violence.

There are numerous cases where these antidepressants makes things worse with either suicide or hurting of others.  The person was depressed and these pills push them over the cliff.   Hell, even on their TV ads (shouldn't be any prescription drug ads on TV or anywhere) they have to warn about increase risk in suicide.

Actually, scratch that...  Just viewed Zoloft commercial and no warnings of increase suicide.  Must have put some company doctors on the FDA panel.

If it is because they are mentally ill then can't we come to conclusion that we are terrible at treating the mentally ill and that these drugs should be either reviewed more or pulled and a new approach taken to treating the ill?

Anti Depressants are rampant in the UK. No mass shootings I can remember here either. At least not since Dunblane after which heavy gun restrictions were introduced.

They might be a contributing factor towards an individual doing such a thing, however. "Things" that easily enable mass shootings being readily available is what makes mass shootings more likely. So I'd say "things" are probably the biggest link in this mystery.

I don't know if it's anti-depressants, but my theory would be that these people are suicidal and lack empathy.

After all if you were suicidal and didn't have any empathy for somebody else, why wouldn't you decide to go all GTA spree in real life.

I believe USA should do more with mental health than prescribe drugs, a little talk with a psychiatrist and then send them on their way into the public.  I'm not sure if I would go as far as going back to putting all the mentally ill in an insane asylum (due to past abuses in asylums) but perhaps they should be removed from society.  They definitely shouldn't be able to own or buy a gun.

because that would divert attention toward the culprit (the shooter himself) and reason why, and away from the gun used. all the media cares, about is A) was a gun used. B) can they call it an "assault weapon" and C) even if they cnt call it an assault weapon, call it one anyway. "AR-15 shotgun"

That's silly. How do you shoot someone with an antidepressant?

The easy answer is they need an easy scape goat. It is easy to blame the weapons used, believe me even if they totally ban guns they will use other messier means to take people out. And if they blame drugs they would have to answer why schools use these drugs as the default method to deal with "problem" students even if they don't need the drugs. (An interest thing is they tried to put me on riddlyn (spelling) because I skipped in the halls and that wasn't proper behavior so there must be something wrong with me.)

It is easy to blame the weapons, its easy to blame a choice of entertainment, because it fits into a profile that doesn't put everyone under the microscope, only a certain number of people. I like what Samuel Jackson posted on his facebook page after the recent school shootings. That where he grew up there was easy access to gun, but there where virtually no gun problems even in the poor sections of the city where he grew up. The problem with today is how society project how you should view other people, this mixed with a ton of other, leads to the problems today.