“We will keep guns out of the wrong hands, enforce our guns laws, and ensure those with serious mental illnesses get treatment”, President Obama stated in January of 2016. Gun Violence has become one of the leading causes of death in the United States resulting in over 32,000 fatalities every year(US National Library of Medicine). For years, politicians have been contemplating methods of gun control in order to reduce gun violence. Republicans have argued that prohibiting mentally ill individuals from purchasing guns is a violation of their second amendment right, whereas advocates of stricter gun laws support President Obama’s regulation to keep guns out of the hands of those who have applied of Social Security benefits through mental illness and those who are incapable of managing their own finances. As President Obama stated that guns must be kept out of the ‘wrong hands’, various arguments have risen over which specific group of people ‘wrong’ refers to. Many consider gun violence to be the action of using firearms to harm others, however a majority of gun violence by mentally ill individuals have resulted in suicide and self harm; more than 90% of those who die from suicide are diagnosed with a Mental Disorder( Mental Health Reporting, University of Washington). Although some may argue that prohibiting mentally ill and disabled people from owning guns is an infringement of their second amendment right, mentally ill people should not be allowed to purchase guns in order
Many tragedies have occurred recently that have spurred the debate on whether or not we need tighter gun controls. On one side of the debate are the gun control supporters, who claim that the easy access to guns is the primary cause for high rates of crime plaguing the United States. On the other side are people who argue that gun laws will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns, since they will continue to get them illegally. Guns are used for protection when in the hands of people who obey the law. It is crucial to not hinder law-abiding citizen’s ability to possess firearms with stricter gun laws, since gun laws do not lower crime, and guns can keep people safe.
In today's world there is a big debate on what we should do with guns. Some think we should ban guns, or limit gun possession. Others think we should keep our guns, after all, we have the Second Amendment, which protects the right for civilians to bear arms. But i believe there is another option, I think there is a link between the mass shootings and mental disabilities and diseases, and if that’s true, we should worry about that. According
Gun control should not exist at all in the United States. Mass shootings have almost become seen as normal event in the United States. What people do not understand is that gun control is not the answer; there are countries with little to no control that have fewer shootings. According to The Washington Post,Finland is ranked number 4 in countries with the most guns despite that they only had 24 homicides by firearm (“Gun homicides and ownership by countries” n.pag.) . In the article Did Gun Control Work In Australia “it is shown that gun control has reduced the problems but it still has not completely got rid of all firearm deaths”(Matthews n.pag.). The number of murders, homicides, or suicides do not go up due to people just owning more guns. Clayton Perry, a staff writer at the University of Maine, even points out “Stricter gun laws were in place during the Assault Weapons Ban between 1994 and 2004, but that didn't stop the shooters at Columbine in 1999 ”(Perry n. pag.). In Iceland, thirty out of a hundred people own a gun and they have zero homicides caused by guns a year(“Gun Homicides and ownership by country” n. pag.). In this day and age, everything is unpredictable, guns are a form of protection for everyone and there should not be restrictions on protection. The U.S. Department of Justice released a data brief that states, “ On average in 1987-92 about 83,000 crime victims per year used a firearm to defend themselves or their property”(Rand BJS Statistician n. pag.). The National Sheriffs Association released that the average police response time is at eighteen minutes while the average school shooting only last twelve minutes (“Embracing Technology To Decrease Response Time” n. pag.). Gun control should not exist because other countries do fine without it , high gun ownership has no link with increasing death rates , and guns are not harmful when instructions are followed.
The debate over gun control is not a new argument, neither is the existence of mental illness. There have been those who support and those who oppose gun control for many years. What has recently re-ignited the debate is an increase in mass shootings over the past few decades; one in particular is the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre. Incidents, such as this, fuel anger and fear, driving many to question the need for firearms in modern society, while others cite these incidents as a reason for remaining armed. The purpose of gun control is to limit the amount of violence in today’s
“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
The mistaken belief that there is a direct link between mental illness and violence is disrupting the gun control system. Individuals with mental illnesses only cover a very small portion of violence in general, and even less with gun violence. Instead, the focus should be on criminals and drug users. “Individuals who have exhibited dangerous behaviors in the past, have a criminal record, or have a history of drug abuse, for example, are much more likely to commit future crimes” (Wolf, 2015, p.851-878). The reason the government is focusing on certain groups of people are to predict future violence, so if they limit the ability of the mentally ill to purchase weapons they are thinking it will reduce gun violence. This hypothesis would not make a significant dent in the gun violence problem of the United States, because again the mentally ill only make up a very small portion. The shooter of Sandy Hook middle school used his mother’s legally purchased weapons and ammunition to commit the murder, even if the ban of the mentally ill were in place it would not resolve the problem. The only way to make sure future mass shooting done by someone with schizophrenia, or other severe illnesses is to fund the mental health programs, and at the moment the country is doing the exact opposite. “Unfortunately, funding for mental health care has diminished significantly; over the past few years states have cut approximately $4.35 billion from their mental health care budgets” (Wolf, 2015, p.851-878). The best way to stop violence is to recognize there is a
Metzl, Jonathan M., and Kenneth T. MacLeish. “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of
a law repealed by Congress in February that would have required the registration of Social Security recipients with mental disabilities to prevent gun ownership. They state that because the mentally disabled are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence, fear about them owning guns is prejudiced and as a result, obstructs their civil rights. In my rebuttal, I counter their statistic about mentally disabled victims, arguing its irrelevance in mass shooter situations and the subsequent unsoundness of their argument. Finally, I explain how unhealthy mental conditions can lead to unsafe consequences in day-to-day situations
On the news this morning, there was a government official that made an extraordinarily prominent point; he said that whenever there has been a monumental disaster in this country, the government never hesitates to take immediate action. The case isn’t always so with gun control, however. Every single time there is a gun related disaster, government officials say now is not the time to push for gun control laws. While President Obama was in office, he passed an executive order that would prevent people with mental disorders from obtaining firearms. Congress has refused to enforce the order. An order that could have prevented countless tragedies. How many guns are in circulation at the moment with owners that are mentally unstable? It makes one wonder, could it have been prevented? There is also the ethical issue facing health care professionals about the privacy of their patients. If one were forced to turn over such damning information to the government, whereas it can be assumed that there would also be a dramatic decrease in the amount of reported cases of mentally unhealthy people receiving treatment or even acknowledgment. The reason for this is that people will not risk their right to own a gun for anything. If this means abstaining from receiving proper health care or therapy, then they simply will not. While applauding the bills intention to make firearms less available to people that would not use it for the right intentions, gun rights advocates sharply criticized the bill, claiming it infringed on the Second Amendment rights of Americans’ (Vitale 1). President Trump recently signed a bill that removed the regulations placed on people with mental illnesses that would limit the purchasing of firearms of people that were deemed unfit (Vitali 1). “‘Republicans always say we don’t need new gun laws, we just need to enforce the laws already on the books. But the bill signed into law today undermines enforcement of existing laws that Congress passed to make sure the background check system had complete information,’” as said by Sen. Chris Murphy, one of the leading gun control advocates in Congress (Vitale 1).
Hi I’m Jake Perry and for my research topic I argued that gun control laws in the United States should not be increased. “In 1939, Germany established gun control. From 1939 to 1945, six million Jews and seven million others unable to defend themselves were exterminated” (Wurzelbacher).Since 1911 when the first major piece of gun legislation was passed in the United States gun control has been a topic of heated debate for many Americans. In the 1960’s the gun control movement truly caught fire due to a series of political assassinations that eventually led to the gun control act of 1968 being signed into effect. To this day the gun control movement lives on and leaves America divided in the question of whether or not to increase gun control
This study brings up the connections of the mass shooting over the past years and now many of them have mental illnesses. This study breaks down the gun control laws related to people with mental illnesses. This also has cases about parents who contacted the authorities when their children had thoughts of acting out but no one did anything about it until they had already done so. This study explains a lot about how it reformed laws and added laws as more shootings happened and it explains why these laws were made or changed.
In our society, firearms have been in use for numerous occasions. There has been an increase in the usage of firearms. It has gotten out of hand today, and gun control laws are so lenient that firearms are constantly being abused. The abuse of firearms have occurred in a very significant amount of states. The lost of lives people have felt with in their families have been brutal.
At first, we should have guns to protect ourselves. Ben Shapiro is a writer well known by many people. He has occupational experience in Political Science and Law. He explained that Obama didn’t do much about gun control. Furthermore, Obama had the chance to prevent numerous shootings, but he didn’t because his gun laws were too weak “The White House proclaims that it wants to remove the stigma around mental illness and its treatment – and make sure that these individuals and their families know they are not alone (Shapiro).” This statement is ridiculously unreasonable because Obama’s administration wanted to give the right to mentally unstable people to obtain guns. Once the people and the government start to see that the shootings carried out by mental people. They change their mind about letting mental people obtain guns. CNN is a television news channel that brings important news to the country. CNN Cable News Network recently revived the case of James Holmes a serious mentally unstable person who killed 24 people and wounded more than 100
It should be required that all citizens looking to buy firearms receive a standardized mental health evaluation. Mental health evaluations to buy a firearm is significant to reducing gun violence. Almost 25% of the population take depression and anti-anxiety medications; therefore, a quarter of the country could be classified as mentally unfit to own a firearm if certain policies are upheld by the federal government. Mentally unstable people should not be able to own a firearm if they are not taking care of their mental health because they could easily cause fatal harm to themselves, family member, or an innocent
Gun ownership should be banned in order to reduce crime rates and ensure the protection of our nation’s people. Throughout the United States, gun control has become a controversial issue due to gun advocates strongly believing their 2nd Amendment rights guarantee them legal access to guns. Although gun advocates view gun ownership as self defense, the government and gun control supporters have noticed that legal distribution of guns has been linked to school shootings, homicide, and violent crimes. Furthermore, legal distribution of guns increases the risk of harming innocent people while declining the police’s power to establish safety in society. Overall, in order to prevent the destruction of our country, the people must work together to ban gun ownership and ratify the 2nd Amendment rights clarifying its purpose to the public.