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The On The Sandy Hook Shooting

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On December 14th, 2012, Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and shot and killed 20 children and 6 adult staff members. I remember sitting in my physics class when my phone buzzed and I received an alert from CNN about the tragic event. Newtown only being about 30 minutes away from where I live, affected my city greatly. The rest of the school year every elementary school in my district had a police officer stationed in front of it and my high school’s security policies would change. The school put alarm systems on the doors and lock all doors except for a select few that were manned by a security guard. This school shooting was not the first or last of mass shootings that have occurred in the United…show more content…
A major topic being discussed in gun control today has to do with how mental illness factors into these shootings and what should be done pertaining to mental health gun restrictions. The general public seems to favor the idea of increasing the reporting of mental illness in background check databases and limiting the ability of those with mental illness from gaining access to guns. In an article by James D. Calvert PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University, cites a recent study done by The New England Journal of Medicine that found that both gun owners, and those who don’t own a gun agree that mental health providers should be required to report those who have threatened to hurt themselves, or others to a background database (Calvert, 76). Another article written by Jeffrey W. Swanson, PhD., a lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University, discusses how the public bases its information on what it learns from sources in the media, which “reinforces the public’s perception of a strong link between mental illness and violence.” (Swanson, 169). This perception then also helps creates a fear of people with mental illness and makes those with such problems afraid to seek voluntary treatment. The scapegoating of those with mental illness is believed by many doctors and researchers to “influence
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