This Is My Rifle: Kids, Guns & Prozac (The New Rock N’ Roll) Posted by Jason James on 01/16/13 | Filed under This Is My Rifle, Opinion

Lately it seems like society as we know it is unraveling at a more rapid pace than usual. Whether it be a school, a movie theater or a shopping mall, it appears that human beings just can't go anywhere without some nutjob showing up with a semi-automatic rifle. Is it possible that America's relaxed attitude towards gun ownership is backfiring? Was the second amendment a gross mistake perpetrated by a bunch of blindingly idealistic old white men? Do firearms serve as an unnecessary mode of protection against a modern day boogeyman that doesn't exist? Before we answer that question let's first travel back in time to the year 1970 and the discovery of a mental disease called, "Minimal Brain Disorder".

Prior to the sudden arrival of this mysterious illness, Methylphenidate, or as it's known by it's more easily pronounced name- Ritalin, was a psychostimulant used to treat a variety of patients in mental hospitals throughout America during the 1950's. Then, after a series of documented issues with the drug, Ritalin slowly slipped off of the radar during the 60's and re-emerged in 1970 as a "magic bullet" treatment for Minimal Brain Disorder. Almost immediately Methylphenidate became the go to cure for the illness and was instantly administered to 150,000 children in the United States.

As the symptoms of Minimal Brain Disorder became uncertain and broad in scope, the medical community gave it a new name in the 1980's. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) was the new psychiatric disease plaguing the children of America and appeared to be spreading like wildfire. The natural response to this epidemic from doctors was to keep prescribing Ritalin until it literally exploded in the 1990's with sales skyrocketing by over 740% from the previous decades with an increased use in children by 400% and America consuming over 90% of the world's supply. Also running right alongside Ritalin was Fluoxetene Hydrochloride, an antidepressant better known to us as it's trademark name- Prozac.

While an increasing amount of the American population began to regularly use Prozac, Ritalin and a long list of other mind altering medications, those of us not on psychotropic drugs began to notice changes in the personalities of our friends, loved ones and neighbors, so we started to ask questions. Upon further investigation, journalists, doctors and various independent researchers found that Methylphenidate and Fluoxetene Hydrochloride had some disturbing side effects. These substances, which were being used to treat a large range of mental illnesses, were in fact doing the opposite of what was intended- inducing delusions, psychosis and both homicidal and suicidal tendencies. In clinical trials there were 28,000 adverse side effects to Prozac reported, more than 1500 of which were suicides. Children who were given the drug developed horrifying nightmares, which caused temporary breaks with reality and manifested in homicidal fantasies. During testing with a controlled group there were 16 suicide attempts and Eli Lilly (the corporation that owns the Prozac patent) reported in their own in-house study a 12-time increase of suicidality in users of Fluoxetene Hydrochloride. It was later discovered that Eli Lilly conspired with members of the FDA to cover-up these findings and introduced Prozac to the American public with no warning whatsoever.

By the late 90’s Attention Deficit Disorder had once again been re-named “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD) and distress in regards to the negative affects of Ritalin on children was slowly growing amongst the American people. At an ADHD conference in 1998, many concerned citizens attended and shared stories of their experiences with the drug. When asked to list the symptoms of ADHD, a panel of doctors couldn’t find one definitive symptom or give an example of a diagnostic test, and after hours of testimonials from parents of children who were now addicted to Methylphenidate, the same doctors and ADHD experts concluded that Ritalin was a safe psychostimulant despite clear evidence of psychotic episodes, homicidal acts, strokes, heart attacks and manic depression linked directly to the drug. Even in their own tests with Methylphenidate, doctors tried tirelessly to rig the results. The most notorious of these tests, and sadly the most accurate one to date, consisted of a control group that was 2-3 years older than the research group who had already been previously medicated and showed signs of brain atrophy (shrinkage of the brain). Once again, the FDA worked with the pharmaceutical corporation (CIBA, now called Novartis) and passed Methylphenidate regardless of the fact that even the inaccurate testing created serious doubts in Ritalin’s ability to help anybody, be it somebody suffering from mental illness or a person of sound mind and body.

Now as time has pressed on we have reached an era in which an average of 1 in 5 Americans are taking some type of psychotropic drug with over 50% of these users eventually overdosing or committing suicide. In addition to antipsychotics, psychostimulants and antidepressants, the United States now also faces an opiate-based painkiller problem of epic proportions. With all of these pharmaceuticals knowingly changing the chemical balance inside the brains of the population, is it any wonder why mass shootings are becoming a regular occurrence? Ritalin and Prozac were just the beginning; we now have Zoloft, Paxil, Fanapt, Cylexa, OxyContin, Percocet and thousands of other psychotropic drugs flooding the market. In virtually every instance of mass shootings the shooter has a history of taking one, if not a cocktail, of these drugs. In cases where the shooter does not have a history with these drugs, it’s because the records are sealed and the history has not been made available to the public.

But, as we all know, the pharmaceutical companies responsible for this mess advertise on all the major television networks, therefore the media will never thoroughly cover this topic. So what develops out of tragedies like the one that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT is a dialogue in which psychotropic drugs aren’t even included. It’s important to note that America’s gun laws haven’t loosened since the creation of the constitution; if anything, they’ve gotten tighter. Yet mass shootings have become a trend that has really only been established during the past 15 years, while firearms have been embedded in American culture since the beginning. There is unquestionably something else at work here and I believe it boils down to 2 issues:

1) The excessive use of psychotropic drugs in American society.

2) The increasing number of citizens living in poverty.

Unlike the obvious evil we all know to be the pharmaceutical corporations, poverty is also a major factor in violent crimes committed in the United States. What most of the mainstream media outlets (and Piers Morgan, I think you’re a cocksucker for this reason) refuse to admit is that mass shootings and semi-automatic assault rifles account for a tiny fraction of violent crime in America. For example, Chicago has a total ban on firearms but is America’s murder capital. How is this possible? The vast majority of people committing murders aren’t registered gun owners who legally purchased their arms, so how are they getting them? Because they are buying them on the black market and no president on the face of the Earth is going to eliminate illegal weapons from the marketplace. Poverty creates desperation which creates crime. It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out. The people living in these areas use the means that are available to them and I don’t know many corporations that are headquartered in Southside Chicago. The United States of America has many flaws but the largest of them all is the way the government treats it’s poor. There are little to no social safety nets for these people and so they are forced to earn a living however they can, which sadly often leads to illegitimacy and violence. Until the American government learns how to take care of all of it’s citizens equally, violent crime will never disappear.

It’s easy for us to react to a tragedy like Sandy Hook and find an easy solution in a total ban of firearms. But a closer look at the issues provides deeper insight and proves that eliminating your right to keep and bear arms is not the answer. The second amendment was written to safeguard you against the possibility of tyrannical rule as well as any external threat posed to you as an American citizen. Removing this ability would be possibly the single greatest mistake the American people could ever make. I am not pro-gun or anti-gun, I am pro-right and the second amendment provides you with the right to protect yourselves under any and all circumstances.

Mark my words, give up this right and you will regret it. The founding fathers had the foresight to write an amendment in their constitution that gave you the power to act as an individual and not as property of the state. There is no conspiracy here, what’s happening is right in front of your eyes, and if you lay down your weapons you will surely lose.

You may be poor, your brain may be scrambled from antidepressants but it doesn’t mean that you’re a prisoner. It is your responsibility as a human being to fight for and maintain your rights and that includes the right to protect yourself from all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his last two albums, "Marvelous World Of Color" and "Pyramids in Stereo" and you can contact him here and here.)

See Also: This Is My Rifle: Living a Writer’s Life (The “This Is My Rifle” Book is Here!)