For many who oppose increased gun-control legislation, the blame for mass shootings and violence are problems relating to mental health.

“People with mental illness are getting guns and committing these mass shootings,” Paul Ryan, speaker of the House, said, after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.

However, despite the fact that the majority of mentally ill citizens are innocent and are not to blame for gun violence, the public is giving America the false impression that all people who are mentally ill are dangerous. According to Sarah Fader, the CEO and founder of Stigma Fighters, a non-profit organization that encourages individuals with mental illness to share their personal stories, mental illness affects 450 million people in the world today. “Many of these people are mothers, writers, daughters, teachers, volunteers, advocates and empathetic human beings,” Fader said. “I have no urge to walk into a public institution and kill people, nor do the vast majority of people with mental issues.”

Similar to the San Bernardino shooting, the cause of the Oregon shooting was said to be mental illness. Yes, legal reform is necessary to ensure that the small percentage of dangerous mental patients do not gain access to guns, but simply blaming the mentally ill for all of America’s gun violence is immoral and will not solve the pressing issue of homicide and mass shootings. The reality is that most people living with mental illness are not threatening and their disorder would not make them any more likely to buy a gun and open fire with it.

“Mental illness is a term that covers a wide range of conditions- everything from serious depression to ADHD,” Dr. John Grohol, a psychologist and the founder of website Psych Central, said. “There are a lot of misconceptions about how a person is actually diagnosed with a mental illness or what it’s like to live with. Research shows that people with a mental illness are generally no more likely to be perpetrators of violence, it’s stigmatizing and prejudiced to believe all mass shooters are also mentally ill.”

Mental illness does not imply violence or brutality, nor does it imply cruelty. Besides being an inaccurate and a stigmatized claim to blame the mentally ill for all mass violence, this prejudice is labeling all mentally ill people as dangerous, causing much harm to them. According to Dr. Bart Rossi, a clinical psychologist, “The stigma associated with mental health is so great that parents are afraid to bring their children to a psychologist because of the fear of having them ‘labeled.”

According to public opinion, mental health is the singular cause for gun violence. However, mental illness is not a factor in most violent acts, according to a study conducted by the US National Library of Medicine. Eliminating the effects of mental illness would reduce all violence by only four percent, and less than five percent of gun homicides between 2001 and 2010 were committed by people with a diagnosis of mental illness.

“The number of [mentally ill people] who commit mass murder is tiny. Decades of research have shown that the link between mental disorders and violent behavior is small and not useful for predicting violent acts,” Mark Follman, national affairs editor at Mother Jones, said. Overall, people with severe mental disorders are more likely to be victims, rather than perpetrators. Due to the public attempting to create a link between mass shootings and the mentally ill, it will most likely make those suffering more dependent and cause a deeper psychological harm.

“Advocates worry that linking mass shootings and mental illness will add to the stigma that already haunts the mentally ill, the mass majority of whom are non-violent,” Brianna Ehley, Politico reporter, said.

Currently, many states are working on reforms prohibiting the mentally ill from obtaining guns. All of these laws and background checks are worth considering at the state and federal level as part of an effort to reduce gun violence. However, by labeling the mentally ill and expanding the stigmatized claim that all mentally ill are violent, the country’s gun violence will not be resolved. Instead of looking for a miracle solution to “cure” America’s shooting epidemic, the public needs to focus on creating a more sophisticated understanding of our country’s most complicated dilemmas–mass shootings and mental illness among them.