Yesterday, the Senate voted on nine proposed changes to federal gun legislation, including the banning of assault weapons, the increase of funding to mental health institutes and, most importantly, the enforcement of background check requirements. The amendment concerning background checks was proposed by Sens. Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, and Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, to hold gun shows and online vendors accountable for background checks of their customers before selling weapons. Although most of the proposed measures are designed to ensure the safety of American citizens, one could argue that an effective handling of the background check will actually curb the death rate the most. But not in the way we think.

The reason I discredit the banning of assault weapons is because it actually won’t do much to the actual number of homicides, which constitutes less than 2 percent — only a couple hundred — of gun-related deaths. The larger justification at play is the fear of the indiscriminate mass killer bearing assault weapons to prey on his or her victims, but these episodes are rare and difficult to predict. In regards to those individuals, one cannot clearly label all such killers as psychologically deranged. Take the example of Charles Whitman, who shot 45 people from the University of Texas’ clock tower. This incident did not indicate a man snapping under psychological strain. Rather, he spent his life leading the model example of normalcy until he developed a tumor in his amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for processing emotional stimuli.

Even the worst school shooting predates us by over 80 years, when a farmer in Michigan blew up a school, killing 45 people. Banning assault weapons will not deter mental instability. I do not mean to discourage the banning of assault weapons because the NRA political leviathan endorses and defends unnecessarily powerful weapons in public possession is ridiculous.

Instead, I feel the background check should have utmost prevalence in the vote, yet not due to the fear of the psychopathic killer, but instead of the much larger toll it would prevent. According to statistics from 2010, over 11,000 homicides were gun-related. At the same time, nearly 20,000 suicides were perpetrated by guns. That is to say, almost two-thirds of all gun-related deaths are by suicide, and this has been the mainstay in America as far back as 1920.

When the rhetoric of gun control opens into the vitriolic demagoguery of both sides, seldom is this silent majority acknowledged as recipients who could benefit from improved background check systems. The common precedent to suicide is any form of mood disorder or depression, either clinical or manic, so these are certainly mental disorders that should merit withholding of weapons from these people, lest they are tempted to use it in their darkest hours.

Nikolas Reda-Castelao is a staff columnist. Email him at [email protected].