What Stereotypes Do You See Around Veterans and PTSD?

President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters on Friday morning, said that the Thousand Oaks gunman who shot and killed 12 people and injured at least 20 others at a bar Wednesday night was a “sick puppy.”

“He was a war veteran, he was a Marine, he was in the war,” Trump said. “He saw some pretty bad things. And a lot of people say he had the PTSD, that’s a tough deal.”

Trump’s comments risked reinforcing a stereotype that military veterans, advocacy groups and mental-health professionals have struggled for decades to overcome: that veterans with PTSD are ticking time bombs, susceptible to committing violent crimes. We’re asking readers to share the types of connections they see people make between violence and service-connected PTSD and what ways they challenge that narrative.

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