Analysis: Guns Don T Kill People

The public has programmed many to perceive those with mental illnesses as more dangerous. According to the New Yorker, a study done in 2013 showcased that forty-six percent of respondents believe that people suffering from a mental illness pose a greater danger to society than those without. Furthermore, two recent Gallup polls, from 2011 and 2013, demonstrated that more people believe that mass shootings transpire because of a failure in the mental health system, not due to the easy access of guns. In the cases of Sandy Hook, Marysville-Pilchuck, Virginia Tech, and more, teachers, students, parents, and most importantly, the public, automatically assumed only insanity could cause the performance of those acts. Of course, mental illness can play an immense factor in a person’s likelihood to commit violent acts, but pinpointing it as the paramount reason for them should not happen. After lengthy analyses of data that discusses the correlation of gun violence and mental disorders, Jeffrey Swanson, a medical sociologist and professor of psychiatry at Duke University concluded that mental illness became a risk factor for gun violence in four percent of cases. Although the presented facts disclose the almost non-existent connection between mental illness and gun violence, many continue believing the opposite.

In the column “Guns do kill People,” Phillip Caputo draws the attention of people who disagree in gun shootings by trying to make them understand that guns are to blame for all of the deaths related to shootings. In order to rebute, her states that libertarians and gun-rights lobbyists state that, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” In the beginning, Caputo wants to support his argument on how guns are the problem, but he then switches the topic of his discussion to how people are the problem. He gives reasons and explanations for both sides of the topic so that he seems more reliable and makes more people understand and agree with him. Caputo compares how one would react to an animal in danger and a child in danger. He claims that,

It is noted that many mass shooters have been diagnosed with some type of mental illness following their massacre.The most common diagnostic from mass shooters is schizophrenia, schizophrenia is defined as a long term mental disorder involving breakdowns with thoughts, emotions, leading to inappropriate actions or feelings (Metzel and MacLeish). Mass shooters such as Adam Lanza, the gunmen of the Sandy Hook shooting was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and James Holmes, Colorado movie theater shooting, was being treated for schizophrenia (Metzel and Macleish). Based on the statistics involving mass shooters and schizophrenia, mental illnesses should be more in consideration when solving for a solution than just the lack of gun control. The rise of mass shootings comes primarily from this last decade, and at the same time the rise of mental illnesses occurred too (Metzel and Macleish). With the rise of mental illnesses and mass shootings, one might believe psychiatrist should be able to predict gun violence with a patient. Schizophrenia does involve violent outbreaks and it can be treated. However with the 120,000 gun related deaths from 2001-2010, five percent of those were caused by a mentally ill patient. This leaves psychiatrists the inability to predict gun violence from mentally ill patients, regardless of the treatment. Over half of the mass shooters

Most of the gun violence in 1997 through 2012 was found, “in Blacksburg, Virginia (Virginia Tech); Tuscan, Arizona; Aurora, Colorado; and most recently Newton, Connecticut, (News Media Framing of Serious Mental Illness and Gun Violence, pg. 406). ” Gun Violence brings us a great deal of deaths. “Given about 32,000 people in the U.S. are killed by guns annually, (Gun-Violence reduction must be treated like auto- safety movement, Vol.45).” That number is very scary when thinking about our topic. It has been a very serious issue that we can be found more in people that have mental illnesses that do not receive the proper care that they should have . One of the articles you can read states that, “Obama directed the CDC to conduct research on guns after 2012 massacre of students and school staff of Sandy House Elementary. (Gun-Violence reduction must be treated like auto-safety movement, Vol.45).”

There has been a strong correlation between mental illness, substance abuse and firearm activities. It has been found that the majority of gun violence are perpetrated by people with a documented mental health problem such as depression, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder; or people with alcohol or other substance use

Direct quote block Mental illness causes massive shootings. In most of mass shootings done by people were mentally sick and not involved socially activities. Increasing treatment of mental illness can prevent crimes. Only prevention for gun control is mental health support, ban gun control and better state laws.

According to the quote above from the Centers for Disease Control, “there were 21,175 suicides in 2013 using a firearm and roughly 42,773 suicide deaths happen every year… Firearms account for almost 50% of all suicides” claims the AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) "Suicide Statistics - AFSP." AFSP. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2016. This is why firearm owners need frequent background checks to prevent citizens with disorders to own firearms! Because guns fall into the hands of unstable people all the time, and by emplacing gun control laws into motion we can stop giving people guns and putting those around them at risk for injury or worse:

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, fewer than 5 percent of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the U.S. between 2001-2010 were carried out by individuals diagnosed with a mental illness. And the fact that one person with a mental illness committed a mass shooting does not make that person a representative of others with that type of mental illness. Many common mental health diagnoses—including anxiety, depression, and attention deficit disorder, have no correlation with violent behavior at

For a person to be able to get a gun shouldn’t be so easy it at least needs to be difficult to an extent of doing more in-depth background checks. Then if the person has a criminal record he/she should not be able to purchase a gun from gun shop stores: such as pawnshops. Also, go to a bit farther extent and check if the person has depression so that they don't self-harm themselves since most suicides that happen are in a moment and it's really devastating for some gun shop owners to hear that a gun they recently sold was used to take there own life. As if says in “ Analysis US Gun Culture” it says that gun owners and sellers have started taking matters into their own hands and have come up with creative solutions to reduce the threat from guns. From working with public health organizations so gun sellers can recognize the signs of depression in a prospective buyer to developing biometric gun locks, citizen scientists are cobbling together measures they hope will slave off the worst aspects of US gun culture. Then with that being said the people who are coming up with these are actually creative so the rate of suicides would go down and that homicides will still be the same since it makes it sound like it just helps prevent self-harm with the firearm. As it shows in “Why the gun-control movement fails” that the total number of deaths in 2016, as of October there was 11,364 of them.

In the article, “The ban on mentally ill people buying guns wasn't ever based on evidence”, Jeffery Swanson states that “the mentally ill are no more dangerous to others” when they have equal access to guns. Also according to public behavioral health system, the severe mentally ill were no more likely to harm others (about 213 vs. 217 gun crimes per 100,000 people per year) This means that 213 normal people use a gun to harm others while 217 mentally ill used a gun to harm another. This shows that there is no point of restricting guns from the mentally ill if the mentally ill are no more dangerous than normal people. If the U.S. want to reduce the number of innocent killings, then guns should be restricted from

According to the NCIPC “In 1994, there were 38,505 firearm-related deaths. These included: more than 17,800 homicides; more than 18,700 suicides; more than 1,300 unintentional, firearms-related deaths related to firearms” (Facts 1). Some of the worst crimes are committed with guns. For example, the shooting at Columbine which Americans heard about on the news in 1999. Two teenagers shot and killed twelve students and one teacher at their own school (Facts 1). The boys were later thought to be mentally ill, as with many of the people who commit shooting such as this. Could this have been prevented through gun laws that require stricter background checks and better mental health check ups? In an article by Craig R Whitney, he quotes LaPierre from NBC, “We have a mental health system in this country that has completely and totally collapsed. We have no national database of these lunatics” (Whitney 1). So many suicides and homicides could be prevented with government mandated mental

This creates an easier avenue for gun purchase and is the perfect temptation to make the terrible decisions of getting a gun for unruly activities and threatening innocent lives. Since guns can be legally bought and owned, the United States has remained a country where suicide rates are on the rise because of rampant and unfettered gun use. Strategies to reduce the risk of impulsive suicides by firearms have included at least two approaches: safe gun storage and regulations for purchasing guns. Storing unloaded guns in a locked place and storing ammunition separately in a locked place have been associated with a protective effect for suicide among children, adolescents, and adult. Bans on firearm purchases for individuals at high risk for suicide, such as those with mental illness, substance abuse, or history of domestic violence, are desirable and might reduce suicides.

In the United States there are many issues under hot debate. Some people are so set in their belief on a subject that they won’t even consider an opposing argument. Gun control is third on the list of subjects in which people are not willing to listen to the opposition’s argument. One side of the gun control argument is that we need more gun control. The opposing side says we don’t need stronger laws, or we need fewer laws. My stand on the argument is that we do not need stronger gun control laws. The thesis of this paper will focus on the argument against tougher gun laws. The anti thesis will focus on the opposition’s belief that there should be stronger gun control laws. Finally, the synthesis will focus on refuting the

Do guns kill people? Of course not, it isn’t logical and it’s ridiculous to blame the action of a person on an inanimate object. When someone makes a bomb the bomber is blamed, not the bomb. No one is blaming Toyota for ISIS using their trucks. Guns just aren’t as evil as media portrays them to be. Media is a large problem in the gun community. Taking guns away doesn’t do anything but hurt everyday americans.

Every year, all across America, guns cross the hands of various members of our society. Guns are legally put to use for the military, the police force, SWAT teams, or even hunters. When it is the military, police force or SWAT teams using guns, they are well-trained in their proper use and make responsible decisions that save lives. In extreme cases, guns are used illegally by large numbers of gangs, drug dealers, juvenile offenders, or other forms of criminals. These people do not obtain guns with the greater good of others in mind, they do so to benefit themselves. They are not properly trained in how to use guns and often times, make decisions that injure or kill the people around them. For these reasons, there are many mixed