have shown the firearm homicide and suicide rates in the US are several times higher than that of any other industrialized country” (Towers 2). The automatic reaction people have to mass shooting is talking about gun control and mental illness policies. Every time a mass shooting occurs both the people and the government go crazy trying to find a solution yet there is no solution. The United States needs to set up mental illness awareness programs to decrease the number of mass shootings. With this in mind, some major shootings in the United States have been the Aurora, Colorado movie theatre, the Newton, Connecticut elementary school, and the Santa Monica shooting. The most recent shootings were in Springs, Colorado, and in San Bernardino, California. All of the shooting mentioned above have left over five people dead or injured. As time goes by mass shootings seem to occur more frequently in the United States. Many say that the media has a big role in promoting mass shooting. That might be true, but if someone is mentally stable it is doubtful they will be influenced to do what they see on TV. Maybe people who are mentally ill might be motivated to copy what they see on TV; therefore the media should have that in mind. Consequently, “In recent years, tragedies involving mass killings in the US, such as The Aurora, CO movie theatre shooting in July 2012, and the Newton, CT has intensified social focus on trying to understand the dynamics and contributing factors that underlie such events”(Towers 2). Both of these shooting left the public shocked and concerned. As an article says one of the main concerns was “concern with the publics understanding of the shooting specifically who or what did the public blame” (Joslyn, and Do... ... middle of paper ... ...ental illness. The article says, “a case usually begins with a gut feeling that something is off” (“Trigger warnings”). Workshops on mental illness should be carried out in schools and workplaces. These workshops should educate people on signs to look out for. Also educate people on who they should talk to if they notice strange behavior. According to the same article “threat assessment is essentially a three part process: identifying, evaluating, and then intervening” (“Trigger warnings”). With more people being educated about this more mentally ill people can be helped and more shootings can be prevented. Additionally, even if the government opts out of doing mental illness workshops they should still encourage people to report anything they find strange. Something as simple as “ a teacher hears a student dark comments and alerts the principle, or someone gets fre
Many of the citations provided are from experts, governors, and news reports. They state the four common assumptions they have found in their study, number one being that mental illness causes gun violence, number two is that psychiatric diagnosis predicts gun crime before it happens, number three is that U.S. mass shootings “prove” that we should fear mentally ill loners, and number four is because of the complex psychiatric histories of mass shooters, gun control “won’t prevent” mass shootings. Each assumption has their own sections providing information to disprove them.
The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, but only in cases of self-defense and hunting for food. However, the use of guns has drastically changed since 1791 when the amendment was implemented. Today, guns are not solely used in their intended ways. Since 2010, over eighty-seven school shootings have occurred within American grade schools, high schools, and universities, resulting in approximately 107 injuries and 109 murders of innocent students. The two most deadly shootings in the world occurred in the United States: the Virginia Tech University Massacre which left thirty-two dead and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting which left twenty-eight dead. Each new shooting prompts a debate about gun control laws and leaves citizens wondering about the accessibility of guns; any United States citizen over the age of twenty-one that does not have any previous felonies is able to easily receive a gun license. Forty-nine out of the sixty-one school shootings that occurred between 1982 and 2012 legally obtained firearms. The statistics become even more outstanding: seventy nine percent of all shooters have been diagnosed with a mental illness or disability, including the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook shooters, Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. Cho and Lanza were diagnosed with mental illnesses and disabilities, depression and autism, respectively. Even so, they were still able to acquire the guns they needed because extensive mental health background checks did not and still do not exist; Cho purchased his own weapon and Lanza stole his mother’s guns. Although the case studies of Lanza and Cho are only two out of the many school shootings, they should be considered prime examples to illustrate the necessity to add stri...
“Guns don’t kill people, people do.” This is a well known statement that is oftentimes considered true. However, it is not completely true. Someone who is mentally ill may be unable to make logical decisions and the perception they receive of reality may be tainted by the illness. Gun laws pertaining to those suffering mental illnesses should be more restrictive. Weapons such as guns make committing an act of violence, especially when there are multiple victims, much easier. It is difficult to assess the probability of a person to commit a violent act that harms anyone including himself/herself. Therefore, gun laws need be monitored very closely and made more consistent throughout each state in order to prevent violence that could occur in the future. To make any system effective, every state must have the same laws and regulations, as it is easy for a person to travel to a state more lenient on gun control and purchase a gun from a store that will sell firearms more openly.
The history of school shootings has shown an increase in mass school shooting. The very first known school shooting in the United States occurred on July 26, 1764 in present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania. As part of the Pontiac's Rebellion, four Lenape Native Americans entered the school house and started shooting, killing the schoolmaster Enoch Brown and about nine students. Only two students survived the massacre (“History”). Since the 1700s the United States society has changed in many ways. Schools have become more than just one room school houses and each grade has its own teacher. Furthermore, the problem of school shootings has not decreased but rather increased over the years. On the one hand, reports from the Centers for Disease Control showed that in general school violence decreased from 1992 to 200...
In today’s society media plays a major role in the perception we have of how certain issues in our society are improving, worsening, or staying the same. One hot bed issue over the years has been that of random shooting and gun control. It seems a few times a year there is a very high profile random shooting spree in schools or other public locations that draws the entire county’s attention for a week or two. During this media fallout many different strong viewpoints come out as to why gun control is not doing enough to protect ourselves from these atrocious crimes or that it is not the gun control that is the issue, but better yet the people committing these crimes that are the problem. Many reporters and news outlets quite often take a stand on gun control during this time and create a bias against guns and the right people should have to possess them. The following will compare and contrast opposing media outlets and their biased reporting on gun violence and how the general public perceives this based on what information is presented the news. The sources will be analyzed on the placement of articles, headlines, visuals, what information is included and omitted, and organizations attached to the news. NBC and Fox news will be the sources of the gun control issues. Recently a random shooting in an Indiana grocery store took place that served as a news item on both NBC and Fox internet websites.
The first thing people cling to in the wake of such terrible tragedies is a simple question: why? Why did the murderer do what he did? When did they develop the mindset that made them commit such a heinous crime? How could any healthy, functioning, moral human being perpetrate perhaps the greatest ordeal of death our society has ever known? They look for action, for reason, for some concrete absolute that can somehow lift the shroud of sorrow that has overtaken their lives in such an awfully tremendous — and yet, however simple this question may be, the answer is never clear, and it is never enough. In the absence of a grounded conclusion as to why school shootings occur — or homicide of any kind for that matter — many people seek answers in what is known — in the few things we can take away from all the innocent deaths, and the person who caused them.
Peters, Jeremy W, and Michael Luo. “Mental Health Again an Issue in Gun Debate.” New York Times 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
Many shootings sere committed by those diagnosed with a mental illness. “Laws cannot regulate responses to emotions, mental illnesses, or past events that foster the concepts and motivations of a killer” (O’Brien and Stanton). What causes these laws to not regulate certain people is that they have a certain mental illness or emotion. Laws cannot regulate the internal emotional force. Laws can only imply to those who are capable of understanding and complying with them. “Emotionally unsound people who wish to find weapons will find weapons through any means necessary” (O’Brien and Stanton). A person who happens to have a certain mental illness may not realize that what they are doing is wrong. Usually the mentally ill find their weapons through taking them from their family members or from purchases that they have made. People that have a mental illness or are on a medication are just one reason why gun control needs to be implied more. A person that hap...
Today in the United States many people argue over the fact of guns being legal or illegal. There are people using guns for personal safety and there are others who use them for crimes, as well as for other situations. Firearm deaths in the United States have slowly been decreasing from year to year with all these bills getting passed to promote a safer country than ever before. Guns are the main weapon for youth suicide, school shootings, and for committing murder. In 2010 there were 2,711 infants, child, and teenage firearm deaths. As in school shootings and in committing murder, studies show shooters often had multiple, non-automatic guns, shootings were planned, most youth tell before shooting, shooters have a history of being bullied or threatened, shooters have mental issues, and shooters have done suicidal gestures before (Gun Control with School Shootings). Although there are people who use guns for murdering, there are also those who oppose guns being used without the proper requirements. 85% of all respondents to the survey supporting requiring states to report people to national background-checks systems who are prohibited from owning gu...
Gun control recently has rapidly become an even further controversial topic due to violent acts against the public by troubled individuals. How were these attacks allowed to happen? As stated in Framing Health Matters article, “In the United States, popular and political discourse frequently focuses on the causal impact of mental illness in the aftermath of mass shootings.” (.1) This issue unfortunately remains so overlooked that media sources only offer it attention after a tragedy. Not to mention the impact these situations have on the society. No normal person decides to harm people solely due to the fact that they can obtain a weapon easily. To be able to move forward with these irrational decisions the
The answer to the inquiry questions will be answered via extensive review and analysis of literature. It is hypothesized that looser gun laws will predict a higher rate of occurrence of public mass shootings involving adult males ages 18-35 with untreated mental illness. Meanwhile, the untreated mental illness of males ages 18-35 will predict a higher rate of public mass shootings compared to that of other adult males who are not afflicted with mental
A study published by Smith, S. E. states that “Over 50 percent of fatal police shootings in many areas of the country involve mentally ill.’’ Still nobody seems to bring up the topic of mental health till a horrific act of mass violence. Even after the terrible act not a lot of talk is being done about what can be done to help the people who struggle with this everyday. Also what should be done to reduce to violence we see coming from this source of.
Eighty-nine people die from gun violence in the United States every day according to the Brady Campaign , from school children to victims of domestic violence to people going about their daily lives. As we mourn the lives of those killed in incidents of gun violence across the country, we need to take action. We should all do everything in our power to keep tragedies like this from happening again. When it comes to addressing mass shootings, we need new answers
Over the past twenty years, there have been at least three major school shootings that hit the media. The most recent school shooting that caught the media’s attention was located in Newtown, Connecticut. A young man by the name of Adam Lanza, walked into Sandy Hook elementary and walked through the hallways and classrooms with an AR-15 and multiple glocks to massacring innocent young, children and teachers. Before showing up to the school, he walked into his mother’s room and shot her in the head four times. Lanza killed twenty children and also killed six teachers. After killing the most people, he thought that he could, he took a fatal shot to the head that he caused by himself. The second most recent school shooting that was all over the media was in April of 2007. This shooting took place at Virginia technical institute. A senior, Seung-Hui Cho, walked onto campus with sinister intentions. His target wasn’t a single person or a single group, it was everyone in his sight. Cho killed thirty-two people and seventeen others. Five of those victims were professors while the other twenty-seven were students. After killing these hardworking civilians, Cho committed suicide. This was the deadliest attack in the United states by a single gunman. The biggest school shooting to hit the media was the Columbine High school Massacre. Unlike the last two school shootings, there were two shooters by the names of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Two high school Seniors. They walked into the high school, located in Columbine, Colorado, and opened fire at everyone in their way. They ended up killing twelve students and one teacher along with injuring twenty-one additional people. When this hit the news, it was devastating and unheard of. No one has seen such a terrible act like this before. All these terrible crimes have to do with gun control and the problems with it in our
I read some comments on Jason Howertons article and people keep saying things like, “In mass shootings people generally use assault rifles”. Yes they do but have you noticed that most of the mass shooting are done by someone with a sort of mental illness. We wouldn't have that problem if at gun shops before every gun was sold they did a deep background check and a medical record check to see if that person was diagnosed with any sort of mental illness.