1 in 6 North Carolina counties have more gun dealers than mental health providers

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) — While the country recovers from two mass shootings in 10 days, the national conversation is turning to two topics: gun access and mental health.

In a news conference Wednesday, Texas governor Greg Abbott placed the blame for the shooting at an elementary school in his state on mental health issues.

“We as a state, we as a society need to do a better job with mental health,” the Republican governor said Wednesday in a news conference, according to ABC News. “Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and to do something about it.”

However, those who advocate against gun violence, like Rev. Jennifer Copeland of the North Carolina Council of Churches, said blaming mental health is an easy way out.

“I think they’re both very important issues, but to blame all gun deaths on a mental health problem is to miss the point,” Copeland said. “The reason we have so many gun deaths in this country is because we have so many guns out here.”

While Copeland thinks mental health and gun sales are separate issues, the two have often been conflated, particularly after mass shootings.

An ABC News data analysis found that nationwide, more than 1,500 counties have more gun dealers than mental health providers.

In North Carolina, one in six counties has more places to buy a gun than to see a mental health professional.

Currituck County has more than 4 times as many gun dealers (17) as mental health providers (4). Four other counties–Jones, Camden, Pamlico, and Caswell–have at least twice as many gun dealers as mental health providers. Gates and Graham counties both have no mental health providers, but two and four places to buy guns respectively.