By Editor,Katelyn Caralle

Copyright dailymail

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes the surge in school shootings and childhood gun violence could be linked to ‘overmedication’ of minors.

The Health and Human Services secretary claimed that a ‘dependence on psychiatric drugs’ is part of the ‘childhood chronic disease crisis’ plaguing the U.S.

The pronouncement came as he convened the Make America Healthy Again Commission on Tuesday to unveil a set of recommendations he says will tackle the ‘childhood chronic disease crisis.’

‘A lot of these 128 recommendations are things I’ve been dreaming about my whole life,’ Kennedy said.

While he is directing agencies to study the ‘root cause’ of rising Autism cases, reevaluate the childhood vaccine schedule and bring back whole-fat dairy products to school lunches – the secretary also said the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is studying the correlation between mental health and gun violence.

But his view on medication being the cause of an increase in mental health issues in highly controversial and many experts, scientists and politicians have disputed the claims.

And his repeated assertion comes in the wake of the most recent deadly mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota last month carried out by a 23-year-old transgender shooter.

‘There are many, many things that happened in the 1990s that could explain this,’ RFK Jr. said when asked if there are efforts to address mental health issues that some blame for a rise in adolescent gun violence.

‘One is the dependence on psychiatric drugs, which in our country is unlike any other country,’ the secretary said during a MAHA Commission meeting revealing recommendations on a wide range of childhood health issues. ‘There could be connections with video games, social media, a number of things.’

‘And we are looking at that at NIH,’ he assured. ‘So we are doing studies now, or initiating studies, to look at the correlation and the potential connection between overmedicated our kids and this violence.’

The 18-page report notes there is a ‘concerning trend of overprescribing medications to children’ leading to ‘unnecessary treatments and long-term health risks.’

The MAHA Commission says that HHS will evaluate ‘overprescription trends.’

Critics say that this rhetoric is just another way for Republicans to rebuke calls for gun control.

Javeed Sukhera wrote on X after of the Minneapolis shooting: ‘I’m a psychiatrist… blaming SSRIs for gun violence is dangerous and misguided. It distracts from the real issue: the urgent need for common-sense gun reform.’

In the new HHS report are plans to overhaul the sunscreen market and reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test at schools – all in the pursuit to Make Our Children Healthy Again.

But likely the most controversial will be potential alteration to the ‘childhood vaccine schedule.’

The report also said that HHs and NIH will ‘investigate vaccine injuries’ through a new research program.

Additionally, HHS ‘will study the root causes of autism.’ The anti-vaccine community claims that the increasing childhood vaccine schedule is to blame for the massive rise in youth autism cases.

Often criticized for rebuking proven science, RFK Jr.’s leadership at HHS has caused shockwaves within the medical community.

The leader of the MAHA movement is overhauling long-held beliefs and practices at HHS – including publicly questioning the efficacy of vaccines.

‘Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability,’ an HHS spokesperson told the Daily Mail when asked about criticism of the Secretary’s ties to the anti-vaxxer community.

But many of the recommendations in the report are less controversial.

For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is working to develop ‘MAHA Boxes,’ which would create options for people on government food assistance programs to get ‘whole, healthy foods.’

NIH will study how the amount of screen time a child has might impact their mental health, while the Surgeon General will seek to ‘limit screen time at school.’

Addressing the mental health crisis, RFK Jr. had to recognize the impact this has on the rising gun violence wave in the U.S.

‘It’s not an easy question,’ Kennedy said. ‘The sudden onset of violence began in the 1990s where people would do something that has never happened in history, which is someone walks into a school or church or theatre and starts shooting strangers… We had lots of guns when we were kids.’

‘We had comparably the same number of guns. Nobody was doing that,’ he insisted.

The secretary added: ‘This is not happening in other countries. Switzerland has a comparable number of guns as we do, and the last mass shooting they had was 23 years ago. We’re having mass shootings every 23 hours.’

During his confirmation hearings, RFK Jr. said that the rise in use of antidepressants and ADHS medications for children is proof of an ‘overmedication’ problem. He called for these meds to be scrutinized more harshly.

Democratic Reps. Andrea Salinas and Becca Balint along with Sen. Tina Smith co-led a response demanding Kennedy rescind his comments because they only ‘further stigmatize mental health treatment.