Mass Shootings And Domestic Violence

The mean number of victims per mass shooting incident is not significantly different between the 1990s, the 2000s, and the 2010s (so far). Also, the mean number of victims per mass shooting incident is not significantly different between Republican-leaning states and Democratic-leaning states. Finally, the difference in average number of victims per mass shooting incident between Republican-leaning states and Democratic-leaning states does not change across decades.

Due to the complexity of the human brain there is an extreme difficulty in being able to scientifically discover all the facts about these disablements. The Atlantic interviewed Dr. Christine Montross, a psychiatrist at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island about defining Mental Illness. To summarize the interview the conclusion that Montross came too is that mental ailments are extremely delicate issues, there is difficulty in separating an actual problem from something such as temporary depression caused by the human condition. This difficulty in diagnosing creates confusion on treatment and the next steps required to prevent the patient from making poor choices. Due to this very troubling diagnosis many patients end up without care, or given substance to combat their mental state (Resse). A study conducted by Harvard medical school shows that people with ailments such as schizophrenia are over 50% more likely to commit a dangerous crime when addicted to a substance such as those prescribed to combat a vast majority of mental ailments (Harvard Medical School). The vast majority of those with these problems however do not seek help and are left to deal with their problems themselves, never seeking expert attention or help. These individuals that are more likely to commit crimes and specifically homicide most commonly have schizophrenia, psychopathy, brain damage, or

One out of every four Americans suffered from a mental illness, yet 60% of them never received treatment (Berkowicz, 2013). An increased awareness of the effect of psychiatric drugs led some to believe that use of them by teen led to violence. In the last several years 31 acts of school violence occurred by people taking, on withdrawal of, or abusing psychiatric drugs. These

Mass shootings happen a lot more frequently in the world than most of us probably know. However, every mass shooting that has been documented and investigated have the same main question behind it; Why did the attacker choose to do this? Many times, our assumptions are all we have. Investigation analyses the entire situation as much as it can to make sure our assumptions, if needed, are as accurate as possible. However, there are a lot of theories and social situations that pertain to mass shootings as well.

By identifying the cause of the problem at its roots, we are lead to believe that we may be able to stop it before it sprouts. The murderer, in the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, was “socially awkward and reserved”, as Ben Stein puts it in his article in The American Spectator (Stein). Perhaps our killer had a similar background to many of our American youth. With increasing trends in teen depression and suicide, and the implementation of more and more prescription anti-depressants and anxiety medications, there are adverse side-effects. Peter Breggin, in an excerpt from his article on Naturalnews.com, states that “psychiatric drugs, including antidepressants, stimulants, and tranquilizing sedatives, can cause violence” (Breggin). While this assumption does hold true in some cases, are we really to be blaming the drug for the acts of the human, already unstable and unreliable? And are we to take a true monster like the Sandy Hook shooter and compare him to any troubled young man, dealt a bad hand and struck with anxiety? Stein includes a quote from John R. Coyne, Jr., “There is evil in the world. It’s beyond mental illness, beyond gun control. It is evil” (Stein). Perhaps to blame the medication for an unspeakable crime is to blame a scapegoat for an act of pure and undisputed

Without a doubt there is a lot of violence on the news today, from mass shootings to murder almost every day. The violence happening should have schools and work places concerned and working better security to their environment. Mass shootings that have occurred over the years such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Aurora Movie Theater and the University of California had shooter that had been diagnosed with one or more mental issue. In the article by Jonathan Metzel, he explained each of the three shootings that are listed above in detail. Jessica Jigmond stated in her article that by voting having better gun laws could help prevent shootings to occur and killing innocent people. The last article Guns, Schools, and

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

This process, however, is more complex than society makes it seem. Yes, there is a correlation between mental illnesses and gun violence but that cannot lead to an assumption that all patients who suffer from mental conditions

Having protection in each house is something that should be mandatory, especially if there is a whole family living in the house. Gun control is a very serious topic in today’s society; it is basically a pack of policies and laws that keep the use, sale, etc. of guns under control, because without them, people would go crazy. Although California has gun control laws already, the government is trying to make them stricter because of all the incidents such as mass shootings. The use of firearms has been crazy these past few years, there has been plenty of mass shootings killing many police officers and citizens. These tragic events are leading up to the government wanting to take away the Second Amendment just

One of the causal explanations for a mass shooting is mental illness. Many of the recent mass shootings that have occurred have partially been caused by the unstableness of the person’s mind. For example, James Holmes, the mass shooter who killed twelve people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado was said to have a schizophrenic disorder. Although the disorder does not blur the lines between right and wrong, it definitely has an impact as to why he was motivated to carry out this shooting. This mental illness problem also occurred with Columbine shooter, Eric Harris. Harris had a psychotic disorder and was even made to be a psychopath, according to the FBI report which was released five years after the shooting. Both shooters had notebooks, in which they expressed their severe hatred for the world and many humans around them. They also seemed to have an obsession with fame to some extent and were even a bit insecure about their own self-worth. These men had psychotic disorders, which shifted their thinking and made them think in abnormal ways, causing them to lose touch with reality. At the same time, mental illness may not be the cause of all mass shootings. In fact, many people will stereotype mass shooters as being mentally ill even though that may not be true. This is one fallacy which is seen today within our society after a mass shooting occurs, and can even be characterized as scapegoating. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, only 3-5% of violent acts are carried out by mentally ill people. Also, the mentally ill are more likely to be victimized and harassed rather than the other way around. In fact, even if a shooter did have a mental problem, there is a very small chance that they would go to a therapist or

With mental illness identified as a very probable cause of these shootings, it is critical that the evidently poor and ineffective clinical help for mental disorders be reevaluated. A theoretical explanation for the modern prevalence of mental illness could be the increasingly optional nature of treatment: therapy is a choice, and checking into a facility or institution is

Barack Obama speaking after gun control failure clip (1:11-1:20) no volume with reporter speaking over

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

Los Angeles, California- I am more than a conqueror. I am a survivor of gun violence and made it out of a bad situation. My life was pretty decent growing up. I was born into a family that showed me countless love and affection. I was the baby of the family with both parents living in the household and three other older siblings. As my younger siblings and I got older we started dating. I began dating a guy that would change our loving family dynamic. I became the victim of domestic abuse and it lasted for over two years. He would control my every move and beat me until bruises would appear on my body. I was afraid to leave because of all of his threats and me “being in love”, I soon found myself awake in my hospital bed with a pain in my chest and police officers right next to me. The man that I loved had shot me and left me for dead.

It is no secret that the United States faces many domestic issues today and many Americans want a solution to those issues. One of those many issues is gun control laws. Since the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 that left 28 dead, many Americans have expressed their fear of firearm regulations wondering, “what will be done?”. After considering both sides, I believe that there needs to more effective gun laws set in place in order to protect the lives of our citizens. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that Americans should have the right to bear arms and stand their ground, but by doing so should not threaten the safety of others. As a result, I propose that basic psychological exams should be a requirement to obtain a gun to prevent people who have undiscovered mental issues from bearing arms. Also, any individual who has been convicted of a felony should have their gun rights suspended. Seeing, as a felony is a very serious crime and those who commit it are likely to continue participating in illegal activities even after released from serving their sentence. Lastly, there should be mandatory safety features to protect young ones. I feel these solutions should be enforced, but in doing so should not violate an individual’s second amendment right to bear arms. Furthermore, another domestic issue we face today is pollution. Over two-thirds of the United States waters are polluted. Although many ignore pollution and feel it