'I think she might have…’: Nikki Haley seeks mental health reform after Iowa school shooting, Vivek Ramaswamy takes jibe

After tragic gun shooting incident at Perry High School in Iowa former UN Ambassador and presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Thursday called for mental health reform, stating that “we have to deal with the cancer that is mental health”. Haley's post on mental health on X (formerly Twitter) garnered a lot of flak with one user criticizing her for being “terrible” at metaphors.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was quick to take a jibe at fellow conservative Haley for equating cancer with the mental health. Reacting to her post, Ramaswamy said: “I think she might've actually written this one herself”.

Read more: “Wish they had a better message…”: Why some Indian Americans are queasy about rise of Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley says 80 percent of US mass shooters are in some sort of crisis

Addressing the voters at a CNN townhall on Thursday, former South Carolina Governor Haley said, "We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health. We have to." She noted that one in three people have a mental health issue, “but if treated they can live a perfectly normal life. ”

“What we see is that 80 percent of mass shooters are in some sort of crisis at the time that they do that. We have got to do better. The problem is we don’t have enough mental health therapists,” she said.

She further stressed on the need to enhance school security amid the rise in shooting incidents across the US. “The second thing is we have got to secure our schools the same way we secure our airports and our courthouses,” she said. “And that means we make sure we have whatever we need to make sure nothing comes through bulletwise or otherwise.”

Read more: ‘You’re just scum’, Nikki Haley blasts Vivek Ramaswamy; he calls her ‘Dick Cheney in three-inch heels’

Iowa School Shooting: 17-year-old student kills 1, injures five

One student was killed, while four others were injured after a gunman opened fire at Perry High School in Dallas County, Iowa on Thursday. A school administrator also suffered injuries in the incident. Police said the gunman, identified as 17-year-old student Dylan Butler, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, as per NBC News.

Haley first reacted to the school tragedy on X, offering her condolences to victims' kin and the entire Iowa community that has been impacted by the shooting.

“No parent, student, or teacher should have to wake up and face news about a school shooting,” she said. “My heart aches for the victims of Perry, Iowa and the entire community.