Vice President JD Vance stated on Thursday the necessity of probing deeply into the underlying causes of mass shootings, suggesting a link to what he termed a “mental health crisis.”

“In the United States, we are indeed facing a mental health crisis. We consume far more psychiatric medication than any other country, and it is crucial to begin questioning the root causes of this violence,” Vance remarked at an event in Wisconsin. This was his initial public response to the church shooting in Minnesota on Wednesday, where two children lost their lives.

In an interview Thursday on Fox News, Vance called the shooter a “mentally deranged human being.”

Earlier in the day, during a Fox News interview, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned that the National Institutes of Health are investigating possible connections between violence and antidepressants that are widely prescribed across the U.S.

“We are initiating studies on the potential influence of certain SSRI drugs and other psychiatric medications on violence,” Kennedy explained.

He did not provide details about the research, such as its timeline, methodology, or whether the findings would be subject to peer review. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday night.

SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are a category of medications that elevate serotonin levels in the brain, thereby enhancing mood. Common SSRIs like Lexapro, Prozac, and Zoloft are used to manage depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Thursday on MSNBC that he doesn’t have any information about any previous mental illness of the shooter, identified as Robin Westman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. O’Hara added that Westman, 23, was never confined for mental illness.

There’s also no indication from authorities that the shooter took SSRIs or any other related medication.

Blaming antidepressants for mass shootings has become a common tactic for some conservatives. In 2022, after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and the shooting at the July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois, some were quick to speculate without evidence about antidepressant use by the shooters.

A 2019 study found that most school shooters hadn’t taken psychotropic medications and that when they did, “no direct or causal association was found” with the shootings.

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., ripped Kennedy for his comments a day after the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School’s church.

“I dare you to go to Annunciation School and tell our grieving community, in effect, guns don’t kill kids, antidepressants do. Just shut up. Stop peddling bulls—,” she wrote on X. “You should be fired.”

Kennedy is a longtime critic of SSRIs, and he has spoken out about what he sees as overuse and overprescribing of the drugs. He has also previously blamed the drugs for school shootings, despite evidence to the contrary.

Mental health advocacy groups have also spoken out against Kennedy’s criticisms of SSRIs, saying that the drugs can be lifesaving by mitigating thoughts of suicide and that they can help people with severe depression or anxiety function on a daily basis and maintain social relationships.

“I know the secretary of health and human services this morning said that HHS is investigating, perhaps, links between some of these drugs and these prescription drugs that some of these minors may be taking and an increase in violence,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at Thursday’s briefing.

“And obviously we have mental health problems in this country that this administration and Secretary Kennedy will continue to speak out about and the work that we’re doing to solve it,” she added.

President Donald Trump hasn’t made any public remarks about the Minneapolis shooting. He posted about it on social media Wednesday, calling it a “terrible situation,” and asked that people “join me in praying for everyone involved!”

He also called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to offer his condolences and ordered that flags be flown at half-staff.

Democrats have long argued that easy access to guns and lax gun laws in some states have fueled the epidemic of mass shootings. Trump over the years has focused on mental health issues and school security in talking about gun violence.