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More Guns, More Problems?

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More Guns, More Problems? It seems like every day I turn on the news there are more and more horrifying stories of violence around the United States. Our children are not safe playing outside in the front yard as they once were. The new terrifying social phenomenon going around today is violent rampage, shooting sprees or mass murder. Gun Violence has widespread effects, not only national grief but also stricter gun control laws that effect law-abiding citizens. The causes for gun violence may surprise you, such as guns are common and easy to obtain, desensitization of society, or mental problems. Today in the United States there are over 44 million gun owners, which means 25 percent of all adults, and 40 percent of American …show more content…

Some say the desensitization of society we are seeing today is a result of “Generation Y” and the way they were raised. They believe the parents of that generation used the practices of unconditional love, not criticizing them in any way, and not recognizing one child’s accomplishments over another’s. By raising them in this fashion, they argue children grew up being selfish, lacking empathy for others, overreacting to criticism and thinking they are better than others.

There are millions of people each year affected by mental illness, and only about half receive treatment for their diseases. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health defines serious mental illness as: a mental behavior or emotional disorder, resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major activities. (4) This disease can play a big role in events such as mass or public shootings. Although there is no good research on links between mental illness and gun violence, there are many cases to be examined where mentally ill people turned into mass killers. Such as James Holmes who we all know from the mass shooting at the Aurora, Colorado movie theatre. He had previously seen three health doctors before the shooting, and at least one of them believed that he had a mental disorder and could be dangerous but nothing was ever done. Even though we have laws restricting

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