Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) blasted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday after he suggested psychiatric drugs given to children could partly be to blame for school shootings.
“I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don’t kill kids, antidepressants do,” Smith wrote on the social platform X. “Just shut up. Stop peddling bull—-. You should be fired.”
Kennedy has long argued that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of antidepressants that increase serotonin and lift mood, are overprescribed, particularly for children.
“Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Kennedy if his agency was looking into the possibility that psychiatric drugs used to treat gender dysphoria were partly to blame for mass shootings.
Robin Westman, the 23-year-old suspect in the Minnesota shooting that killed 2 children, was born male and applied for a name change at 17 to reflect a female identity, according to court records. Some conservatives online have seized on Westman’s gender identity to portray transgender people as mentally ill.
Responding to Kilmeade, Kennedy Jr. said his agency was “launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.”
SSRIs are not used to treat gender dysphoria specifically, but can be prescribed for depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders that are experienced at particularly high rates among transgender individuals.
Kennedy has also promoted the unfounded theory that chemicals in the environment are contributing to boys experiencing gender dysphoria.
Wednesday’s shooting has reignited a nationwide debate over gun control, mental health and school safety as tens of millions of students get set to return to classrooms this fall.
Smith and other Democrats say the focus of many conservatives on mental health and antidepressants is a distraction from the biggest problem: easy access to high-powered firearms.
“There are 400 million guns in this country. More guns than people. In America, we are ten times more likely to be shot in a school or playground than any other developed nation,” Smith said in another X post.
