RFK Jr. slammed for targeting psychiatric meds in wake of Minneapolis shooting

US health and human services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr) has, without evidence, targeted psychiatric medicines such as SSRIs in the wake of the recent Minneapolis mass shooting. 

On Wednesday (27 August), at around 8.30am, Robin Westman, 23, killed Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10, and injured 18 others, after open firing through the stained glass windows of a church at the Annunciation Catholic School during a back-to-school mass filled with children. 

Westman, who is believed to have been trans, died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and did not seem to have any specific motive, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.

However, during an appearance on Fox & Friends, health secretary RFK Jr suggested, off the back of the tragedy, that anti-depressants and other medical drugs are driving trans people to commit mass shootings. 

‘We need to look at all the potential culprits’

A 2019 research review found that most school shooters from 2000 to 2017 had not been treated with psychiatric medication. The review find no link between medication and shootings where medication was involved. 

In comments made on Thursday (28 August), RFK Jr baselessly claimed that gun violence in US schools and churches was a new phenomenon, despite data going back more than a decade. Data published by CNN US reveals school shooting data as far back as 2008. 

“There was no time in the past when people would walk into a church or a classroom and start shooting people. 

“And it’s not really happening in other countries. It’s happening here and we need to look at all the potential culprits that might be contributing to that,” he claimed. 

The main culprit, which RFK Jr failed to mention, is gun violence. A 2024 report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions found that for third straight year, firearms killed more children and teens, ages one to 17, than any other cause including car crashes and cancer. 

Asked by Brian Kilmeade if he would examine drugs used by trans people, RFK Jr. said: “We’re launching studies on the potential contribution to some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.

“Many of them have black box warnings that warn of suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation, so we can’t exclude those as a culprit.” 

As noted by the NHS, SSRIs – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – are a type of antidepressant, the most widely used, that work to treat symptoms of depression. 

His comments have led to widespread outrage, with many accusing him of attempt to manipulate the tragedy to align with his political agenda. 

‘Sick and twisted view’

314 Action Executive Director Erik Polyak told The Daily Beast: “RFK Jr. has a sick and twisted view of the world. Instead of promoting mental health and addressing the chronic crisis of gun violence in this country, he’s doubling down on disinformation. 

“SSRIs and antidepressants are safe and tested medications. They are prescribed all over the world, but America is the only country with a mass-shooting problem.”

Vice president JD Vance has also echoed the same sentiment as RFK Jr, claiming that the massacre, and the “root causes of violence”, is linked to mental health. During an interview with Fox News he called the shooter a “mentally deranged human being”. 

Dr Ardashes Mirzatuny, a psychiatrist in Dallas, told The Dallas Morning News that he believes there is no link between psychiatric medication and mass shootings.

He added: “In fact, one should be on some kind of psychiatric medication to forestall any kind of violence.”

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