Mental Illness And Gun Violence In America

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.

The question of how to make our communities safer has a list full of solutions which seem to never end. The great debate begins with have any of these solutions worked, or have the right solutions been put to play. Gun control is a very popular topic today, and rightfully so. The media has shined light on mass shootings that have claimed many lives and destroyed families. The question is on who, or what does the blame fall on. Are the gun owners the responsible, or are the weapons themselves to blame? A solution that has been set forth concludes that in order to become a firearm owner, mental stability should be proved. Should government enforce mental health evaluations for gun purchase?

In the past decade mass shootings and domestic violence has become a topic frequently talked about in America's society. In America it is a popular belief that mass shootings are a product of mental illness or because there are an abundance of guns. A part of mass shootings occur because of mental illness, but not in the way many people believe. Drugs that are prescribed to people that have a mental illness or are depressed are affecting people's brains and the things that cross their minds. America's crisis on mass shootings and domestic violence is due to the prescription of psychotropic, psychiatric and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs, commonly referred to as antidepressants, from trusted psychiatrists.

The question of Gun control is in the news. The subject comes up with each election along with the latest tragedy statistics. Both sides of the debate throw explicit words towards the other, it all turns into an argument and there seems to never be any agreement. It 's very disparaging to me to see the innocent lives of children taken and for a defense gun owners hide behind what amounts to a 400 year old scrap of paper which is neither relevant to modern day problems or understood the same way by any two people reading from it. It really goes to show the poor quality of the generation of people we are in. An example would be, they play the same Christmas songs from 300 years ago and half of them have never seen a sleigh bell or ate a

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

Has the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill led to the increase of mass shootings experienced in the US? According to Lankford, several reports suggest that up to 60% of offenders of mass shootings in the US since 1970, exhibited symptoms including depression, delusions, and acute paranoia prior to the commission of their crimes. Further statistics have shown that since 1982, there have been at least 71 public mass shooting across the country; with 34 of these mass shooting having occurred since 2006. A recent analysis of the database by researchers at Harvard University corroborated by a recent FBI study concluded that mass shootings have been on the rise. More than half of the cases involve school or workplace shootings, 12 and 20

Furthermore, mental illness is turning out to be a major cause of gun violence, in order to reduce gun crimes and instead of creating more laws and stipulations, steps must be taken. A professor at the University of Virginia and clinical psychologist, Dewey G. Cornell stated, ''We need to focus on prevention more broadly, before the violence, to have a real impact.'' (qtd. In Broader Approach). Some interpret that as, Americans need to stop focusing on the laws, and start realizing that dangerous situations, such as a mass shooting, can be prevented by recognizing the signs. Countless individuals are beginning to share his feelings. Some mentally ill people are starting to have a major part in mass shootings and those

To date, there have been 391 mass shootings in the United States in 2017. Most of which, the motives of the shooters have been discovered, whether it be domestic problems, affiliation with a terror group, or some sort of mental disorder. Yet, none of the other 390 shootings compare to the degree of the October 1st shooting in Las Vegas which left 59 dead and over 400 injured. In fact, no shooting in United States’ history can compare to this tragic event. Although, investigators and experts have yet to come up with an exact motive for Stephen Paddock’s actions. While Paddock had a fair share of economic problems, as well as family issues, the most appropriate reason as to why the Vegas shooter perpetrated the act as he did most likely pertains to psychological theories of criminology.

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

Powers states that right after gun violence takes place, “is perhaps the worst time to talk about mental health when you consider that the large majority of those with psychological disorders are not violent. In fact, media reports connecting violence to mental illness only increase the stigma directed toward the mentally ill” (2015). It is easier for the media to discuss mental illness when it is in the context of gun violence because it gives the media something to blame for the violence. However, many mental illnesses are not violent. Outside of gun control, mental illness is not talked about enough in the media, meaning that it does not get the attention that it needs (Powers, 2015).

A current most spoken issue among the public media is gun violence or mass shooting however the crime is not as many as it was twenty years ago. The term mass shooting does not have an official set of definition yet, but the term indicates crime which is killing as many people as possible in a short time frame. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines it as “actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area” (Sam Brock, Rachel Witte, and Joe Rojas). A mass shooting can begin due to several reasons: it could be background history, media, despair, or something else. Nico Lang, the author of America’s White Masculinity Complex and The Myth of The “Senseless” Mass Shooting says, mass shooting can also be related to mental “functions like the specter of ‘mental illness.’” A number of mass shooters have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. Are the mass media addressing the basic issue clearly? Of course, the media address the issue more than the violence expects to be addressed, but it is not overt enough. ….. By examining a variety of news media coverage on the subject of mass shooting, this essay concludes that when choosing stories to cover, the news media must take the general audience into consideration. Ultimately, what is at stake here is the media exaggerate the crime and report it disproportionally, and the distortion of reality can have variety of effects on the viewer or the general audience.

In this journal, Knoll and Meloy research the psychological wellness of mass murderers. They both claim that most mass murderers deal with some level of paranoia, which leads to them committing violent crimes. The researchers came to this conclusion through analyzing “pre-offense” (239) messages such as videos and letters that mass murderers often leave behind. They more specifically discussed analyzing Kipland Kinkel, who killed his parents and two students at his Oregon school in 1998. After analyzing these messages, they came to the conclusion that mass murderers are often on a “spectrum from paranoid traits to psychotic delusion.” (241). This means that mass shooters often suffer from some level of a mental illness, whether it be minor

A mental illness is a disorder that affects your mood, thinking, and behavior. Some examples are anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar mental disorder. A person with a mental disorder can purchase a weapon, such as a gun, without revealing if they have a mental illness. The mental health question that appears on both the federal and state gun-purchase applications is “Have you ever been declared incompetent or involuntarily committed to a mental institution?” This question seems reasonable enough. Most people answer “No” and move on to the next question. Virtually everyone agrees that individuals suffering from serious mental illnesses should not be allowed to purchase firearms. Most gun buyers assume that federal and state authorities verify

Literature Analysis and Research Proposal of the Correlation between Mental Illness and Violence and Crime