An Account Of Social Contrasts On Attributions Of Causality

The article Shootings by Adam Gopnik depicts the correlation between mass murders and media to be a social gathering in which citizens from all around the world bandwagon onto debates to form “crusades”. Adam emphasises that media sources only shine light upon topics of gun violence and mass shootings in a overly exaggerated tone, rather than finding an appropriate solution. Adam attepmted to propose that media only brodcrasts pinpointed topics that grabs public attention to make headlines by focusing the characteristics of the Virgina Tech’s shooter’s mental illness. According to Adam (2007) “... much of the conversation was devoted to musing on the treatment of mental

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the relation between gun violence and mental disorders and/or diseases. Within we will find if the violence in society is truly an issue, or if the real issue is the mental health and sanity of our society.

One of the many misuses of firearms are the mass shootings that seems to becoming a normal tragedy in the United States schools. Mass shootings that occur usually have a motive or some kind of emotional tie to why these types of murderous actions took place. Phillip Cook and Kristin Goss explains emotional ties of the killers and what drives them to murder:

The chances of being a victim of a mass shooting are a little less than your odds at being struck by lightning (Fund, 2012). If you take a look at our nation’s history you will see that the rate at which these killings take place are on the decline. This fact begs the question then what are the similarities with all these mass murderers? Is it the mental-health aspect of these murderers that link them all together? Is there a connection between the mass murderers that somehow will allow us to find these people before the acts? Finally, what is the reason that these mass murders are taking place? Are they doing it for fame, love, revenge or power? All of these questions have sparked several studies about these murderers in order to figure out

Metzl, Jonathan M., and Kenneth T. MacLeish. “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of

The mental health system in The United States is flawed and needs serious reform. Many of the mentally ill are failing to seek the help that they need and deserve in a country like the U.S is baffling and must be reassessed. The system causes a rise in gun violence and more specifically, mass shootings. There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration when approaching mental disorders and their correlation with mass shootings. Things such as type of mental disorder, the widespread diagnosis in the US, masculinity in men, and gun laws themselves. This research was done through a series of articles, interviews, and books. Mental disorders need to be taken largely into consideration when trying to find a cause for a shooting, and

In “Talking About Mental Health After a Mass Shootings is a Cop-out” (2017), Fareed Zakaria justifies the idea that the main issue causing mass shootings is a “cop-out”. Zakaria elucidates this assertion by explaining that mass shootings are unjustly blamed on mental health rather than guns or the intentions of the person, as well as providing data that supports the idea that “gun violence across the United States find a similarly tight correlation” (6). He uses facts derived from reliable data, that observe the relation of gun violence to gun laws, in order to convince the audience of the real issue, leading people to start blaming the real problem rather than mental health. Zakaria addresses those who unreasonably blame mental health because

Everyone’s off-target. Another horrible shooting, another young shooter. Eighteen years of death since West Paducah, Kentucky first warned of an epidemic. Finally, there’s invigorated debate about gun control and mental health care. But, there’s a glaring problem.

Mass shootings happen about every two weeks (“Behind the bloodshed, 2013, para. 3). After a mass shooting, many people ask these two same questions: How did the mental health system default them? How did he or she get such a powerful weapon? However, these questions do not have to be asked because these tragic shootings can be prevented. This can be done by taking better care of the mentally ill, enacting better gun control laws, and by not allowing violence in video

Suicide was by far the greatest number of deaths from firearms. According to the CDC of the total 33,594 deaths from firearms in 2014 over 64% of the deaths from firearms were a result of suicide (Kochanek, Murphy, Xu, Tejada-Vera 2014). While it is tragic to know that means the other 36% were killed by having a firearm turned on them it still shows that the dangers of firearms lies mainly in the hands of someone who has a mental illness. Even if we assume all other deaths were from people who had no form of mental illness that is over 20,000 people who if mental illness did not exist or even just better treated, would still be alive today. In order to treat mental illness however, we must be able to distinguish what is and is not a mental illness. For the purpose of this article a mental illness is; any disease or disorder that is clinically recognized and causes some sort of distress. Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year (Martinelli., Binney, & Kaye 2014). Considering that most gun deaths are caused by suicide, it is understandable to assume that these people were

The shooter is typically labeled mentally ill or psychotic without actually having been diagnosed. Americans use this label when no other explanation is visible or when they can’t provide a logical explanation for someone’s actions. The same label is commonly used in children that tend to fidget during class. Adults do not blame the class, or the teacher but just assume that the child has ADHD. “ Sixty-three percent of respondents blamed a deficient mental health care system as the prime reason for America's incessant gun massacres. .” ( Follman 1 ). It is assumed that a psychiatric diagnosis can predict a gun crime. With this bias towards a shooter's mentality, fear could be instilled into the minds of the younger generation to fear mentally ill patients, and could lead to the exclusion and segregation of any mentally ill patient because of the fear of that person committing mass

It seems like an epidemic to turn on the television and have the screen be bombarded with news broadcasts surrounding a school, college, and even churches and having those two words engrained at the bottom, “Mass Shooting”. In just those two words dread stabs its way into our hearts. Soon the media interviews a bystander that witnessed the massacre. They describe how the blissful harmony of mundane life was broken by the abrupt thwack of lead as it glides through the air. The number of mass shootings has exponential increased. What drives a person to such an immoral act? Finding the irrational motivation behind this problem goes deeper than blaming firearms, instead it means finding the cure to the virus of mass shootings through the three causes in the seeking of glorification, lack of an authoritative figure, and the obsession of some radical ideology that devalues respect of human lives. These three factors are in part what have allowed the once random acts of mass shootings into an increasing occurrence of everyday life in America.

Llorente, Elizabeth. “How Prevalent Is Mental Illness in Mass Shootings?” Fox News, FOX News Network, 3 Mar. 2018,

This paper examines the act of mass murder. If society can find a valid answer as to what causes a person to commit mass murders, then the possibility of preventing the act would be great because it would be probable to recognize the psychotic behavior that is associated with mass murder. Occurrences of mass murder for instance the shootings at Sandy Hook, Aurora Colorado theatre; Columbine and Virginia Tech over and over again dominate much of society's attention not only for weeks but often for months following the incident. The research question I have selected is: ‘What are the sociological and psychological causes for unforeseen criminal actions of Mass

For most individuals, the thought of blaming the victim of a tragic experience for their own pain and suffering, seems preposterous. However, ascribing at least some of the blame to the victim is not uncommon (Niemi & Young, 2014). Victim blaming refers to individuals finding reasons to hold the victim of an incident responsible for the crime that took place (Hayes, Lorenz & Bell, 2013). For victims of sexual assault, who may already be experiencing self-blame and distrust of others, being blamed adds insult to injury (Harber, Podolski, & Williams, 2015). According to Harber et. al, victim blaming can also have long-term effects on victims, such as, increased anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In an effort to increase support and resources for survivors of sexual assault researchers must determine why individuals are prone to blaming the victims rather than the perpetrator of a crime.