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Forbes
Forbes
7 May 2023


Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2018 - Day 2

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA - OCTOBER 02: Megyn Kelly speaks onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women ... [+] Summit 2018 at Ritz Carlton Hotel on October 2, 2018 in Laguna Niguel, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Fortune)

Getty Images for Fortune

In the wake of a mass shooting at a Texas shopping mall that killed 8 people Saturday, SiriusXM radio host and former Fox News personality Megyn Kelly accused advocates of gun control of standing in the way of progress that could cut the number of gun deaths in America. “You’ve failed to effect change,” Kelly said on Twitter. “Please face it. You can’t do it, thanks to the (Second Amendment). We’re all well aware you don’t like that fact, but fact it is. What next? Must we just stay here sad, concerned, lamenting? Could we possibly talk OTHER SOLUTIONS?”

While little was known about the shooter in the Texas incident, Kelly suggested that “mental health interventions” and a “greater willingness to lock people up,” along with the “fortification of soft targets” were issues deserving of attention instead of limiting access to guns and a possible assault weapons ban.

Multiple Casualties Reported After Shooting At Outlet Mall In Texas

ALLEN, TEXAS - MAY 6: Emergency personnel work the scene of a shooting at Allen Premium Outlets on ... [+] May 6, 2023 in Allen, Texas. According to reports, a shooter opened fire at the outlet mall, injuring nine people who were taken to local hospitals. The police have confirmed there were fatalities but have not specified how many. The unidentified shooter was neutralized by an Allen Police officer responding to an unrelated call. (Photo by Stewart F. House/Getty Images)

Getty Images

By suggesting mental illness is linked to mass shootings, Kelly was perpetuating a myth that’s been disproven in several scientific studies. The FBI, which studied the individuals responsible for 160 active shooter incidents between 2000 and 2013, noted the “erroneous inclination to assume that anyone who commits an active shooting must be de facto mentally ill,” and found that “only 25 percent of the active shooters...were known to have been diagnosed by a mental health professional with a mental illness of any kind prior to the offense.” That figure is roughly the same for Americans at large, with about 1 in 4 adults suffering from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year.

Kelly’s comments infuriated gun control advocates, including Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the mass shooting at her school in Parkland, Florida:

Others pointed out that the majority of Americans want further action on gun control, and they’re not the ones “ruining any chance at change.” They pointed to Republicans in Congress and state legislatures, who have not only resisted stricter gun control legislation, but have pushed to expand access to guns and to make it easier to carry guns in public places.


Joining in the Twitter pile-on was former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who called Kelly a “screeching fascist” in a blunt and gruesome message: