The On The Sandy Hook Shooting

After a mass shooting event, the public’s focus often shifts to gun control, as well as the state of our mental health system. “Research suggests that mass shootings can increase mental health stigma, reinforce negative stereotypes that people with mental illness are dangerous and violent,

The Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Massachusetts was one of the worst school shootings in recent memory and there were changes and precautions in security in the U.S., in schools and out. After the shooting, not just the Newtown School District changed their security, but so did most of the country. Vice President of the NRA Wayne LePierre started a movement so that there could be trained and armed volunteers in 100,000 schools.

A group of angry and worried moms petition together the following day of the Sandy Elementary Hook shooting. What started as a Facebook page plummeted rapidly turning into a lobbying force on members of congress. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America wanted more focus on background checks on those who wanted to acquire guns within the United States. An alluring illustration by the campaign is born. The ad that catches the eye depicts a banned children’s book. Two girls are side by side in a library flooded with shelves of books. On the right side stands an American flag, and on the right sits an old rocking chair. The main focus is on the two little girls sitting side by side cross-legged. The girls are total opposites. The girl sitting on the right beside the rocking chair is a short-haired brunette holding an Assault weapon half her size. On the left besides the American flag, an African American girl is holding a children’s book, Little Red Riding Hood. The ad asks the viewers to guess which item is banned in the United States. On the bottom in tiny scripts it writes, “We keep ‘little Red Riding Hood’

Every year 30,000 americans die from guns while others have the privilege to end up with a disability rather than dieing. The men and women who are diagnosed with a mental illness and obtain guns often commit suicide and crimes such as mass shootings, and murders. Because healthcare providers don't report the mental illness’ of many people to the FBI these people are able to pass a background check when they attempt to purchase a gun. Although the second amendment allows people the right to bear arms, it has become easy for the mentally ill to acquire guns and gun control should be strengthened for this very reason.

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting affected the country’s thoughts on school safety in a way that perhaps no other event has. “President Obama wiped away a tear as he spoke in Washington Friday. 'We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years,' he said. 'We are going to have to come together to take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics.'” (Shock). The people and citizens of this country wanted to be comforted by a trusted government official, so President Barack Obama delivered a speech about gun violence just after the shooting. “‘The only way this time will be different is if the American people demand that this time it must be different, that this time we

Not one person from Sandy Hook, Connecticut ever thought this sort of event would ever happen. On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members in a mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Before the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at his home in Newtown, Connecticut. After the shooting, Lanza successfully committed suicide before he was detained. Which left, the state, officials, and the entire country to question why Lanza would do such a horrible act of violence to innocent children and staff members of the school. Also, questioning the security of schools, and even our country. There are many conspiracies of the

Friday, December 14, 2012 will forever be a date not necessarily marked on our calendars, but in our hearts. While millions of Americans continued their normal routines, innocent children’s lives, as well as a handful of heroic teachers, were taken away in a matter of seconds, since “each victim was shot three to eleven times,” according to medical examiner, H. Wayne Carver (Circa Part 4). Superintendent Janet Robinson commented, “A lot of children are alive today because of actions the teachers took.” (Circa Part 10) A total of twenty-six individuals were tragically murdered because why? That answer will never be answered since Lanza committed suicide at the scene as police were on their way, which leaves no closure for the victims’ family and friends. The Newtown, Connecticut shooting caused an increased in protection at schools by implementing new gun laws and changing America’s views about the

In my opinion, photos of Victims of the Sandy Hook Shooting should be released. The public should be allowed to see the photos so they can be informed about the chaotic problems that are occurring in society. With the photos being released to the public eye, people in society can better protect their families and friends. This will decrease the percentage rate of killings/shootings that might occur in the

In February 2012, Thomas Lane shot three people at the Ohio Chardon High School. Lane had stolen the 22-caliber handgun from his uncle, who purchased it legally. In October 2011, eight people were killed by Scott Evans Dekraai in Seal Beach, California. He used a number of different guns, all legally purchased. He had a restraining order that had banned him from purchasing any guns just a year earlier, but it had expired by the time of the shooting, allowing him to legally purchase his guns. In July 2012, James Holmes killed 12 people in Aurora, Colorado at a movie theater. He had legally purchased several guns, all from licensed dealers, passing background checks for each. Not a single gun, from any of these men, was bought illegally and in each case the killer completely followed the law. The Sandy Hook killing involved children, making it harder to hear, but the fact didn’t change that the mass shootings and private sales have almost nothing to do with each other. (Cooke 1)

“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

This shooting was the worst in United States history, and it left families speechless and people in disarray. Two teens committed the treacherous actions of that day. The speculations were that they did this because of bullying, goth culture, or music or video games; these though were all just theories and were never proven(history). After this event, schools, venues, and events have endured grand security increases in the danger of shooters or other violence. Throughout my school days, I have wondered why we do the silly lock down drills at school, but in reality, lives could be saved in the event of an actual attack on my school. I realized this my eight grade year at Guntown Middle School. There was an unidentified man on campus, a code red lock down would amerce. I still remember sitting under my desk, shaking, and almost to tears. I did not want to be remembered as just another statistic if it was a shooter. But it had been our lucky day, the man who had stirred up all the commotion was just looking for the school’s office. Those fears I experienced however, would stay with me. We all believe that we are invincible and that it would never be us. However, with the world as it is today, no one is safe. I have been affected by the Columbine shooting through security changes in schools that I

To summarize, school shootings shouldn’t be taken lightly. One quick threat can lead to a nationwide memorial day. We can learn from our past with Columbine to treat all of our peers with respect if not kindness and from Sandy Hook to learn how to better protect our children. Columbine, 1999, 24 survivors . Sandy Hook, 2012, 12 survivors.

Across the nation, many states have begun to reassess their mental health policies and how they affect gun control. One state in particular is Maryland. In 2012, Maryland began a legislative task force to investigate the access of individuals with mental illness to regulated firearms (Maryland, 2013). Under current state law, access to firearms is denied to anyone who has been confined to a mental health facility for more than 30 consecutive days. The law also states that the individual must be determined to be dangerous to themselves or to others along with their mental illness in order to be denied access to firearms. The other question asked is what access law enforcement officers should have to mental health records. In an article by Gostlin (2011) he states “Successfully reducing firearms-related

On December 14th 2012, it was a normal Wednesday for me until around 10 a.m. I took out my headphones as I heard my school’s principal come on the loudspeaker to alert the school that we were going into a lockdown. This didn’t worry me because we always had these drills, but as we had been in lockdown for an hour with no explanation, I began to become nervous. I didn’t realize that at the time, no more than a mile away, there had been a shooting at the local elementary school. This had completely changed Newtown Connecticut forever as we had lost twenty-six beloved souls. I personally mentored a young boy who had lost his younger sister in the shooting and I saw how forever changed he was by the terrible event. It is hard to ever put yourself in the position of someone has experienced loss from a shooting until you have actually experienced it. As I think of the boy I mentored and all the victim’s families that were affected, I wonder if stricter gun laws would have stopped the shooting that day? Or would the gunman still have been able to commit such an unspeakable act?

Unfortunately, the notion of schools being a safe place is no longer a trend across American schools. Disturbing mass shootings in the U.S continue to shock the media. A school shooting is when someone attacks a school using a gun. The Secret Service says these shootings are "deliberately selected as the location for the attack". The reasons massacres occur in schools is because of poor security, violence in video games/media, and bullying. Shockingly the U.S. has the most school shootings than any other country in the world. According to the FBI, mass shootings occur, on average, every 2 weeks in the U.S. While the cause of school shootings are sometimes unpredictable, it is a growing issue and they need to be prevented. Most shooters don’t have mental issues, they have a plan to kill, so there is no singular cause that creates violent people. On April 16th, 2007, the most deadly school massacre occurred. Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two students at Virginia-Tech. As Americans, we no longer should turn on the news and witness these gruesome murders. We try to make sense of these murders, but it’s ineffectual. There are measures we can take as a society to help. The number one question in a school massacre is, "why would a person that has a capable sense of mind even do that?” It is our moral responsibility to fix these issues. In order to stop this problem, we need to find its roots.