Causes Of Mass Shootings

The millennials generation have witnessed 65 mass shootings since 1990. The number of victims? 936(Mass shootings in America, Follman; 2015). The first mass shooting of the generation occurring on September 14th, 1990 when 47 year old Joseph Wessbecker entered his former workplace and gunned down 9 people, and injuring 12 others before committing suicide. The most recent mass shooting happened on October 1st, 2015 when 26 year old Chris Harper Mercer opened fire at Umpqua Community College in which he killed 9 people and injured 9 others. Wessbecker and Mercer had one thing in common, They both suffered from mental health problems. Out of the 65 shootings, over 50% of them were caused by people has prior signs of mental illness. But, there

The thought of a mass shooting happening puts fear into the mind of human beings, and the thought of possibly putting a stop to them by providing better mental health services to people may be a soothing thought to people. But like abortion and gun control, Everyone has an opinion that can’t be ignored on the topic. There’s people who think that mental health issues causes the mass shootings, and then there’s the people who beg to differ and think that mental health doesn’t play a role in them(mass shootings) at all and think that people use the mental health as a reason to justify the shootings. Now we come to the million dollar question, Is mental illness the reason for mass shootings? One thing is for sure, Rampage Violence needs a new type of

In the article, Katz interviewed Harold Pollack of The University of Chicago, and he states that “gun reform can’t be achieved until americans stop looking at mental illness as a scapegoat for violent behavior”. In the interview, Mr Pollack also states that severe mental illnesses only account for 5% of the violence that is seen in America. Pollack additionally adds that he believes that people who carry concealed gun permits are not the dangerous people but that they are supporting or contributing to the problem in america which is gun violence. Pollack is trying to persuade the public that instead of mental illness being the problem, That it’s actually guns. The average gun enthusiast would probably say that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The questions that Pollack must answer is does he have evidence that back up his claims, and in the article he does not. Pollack and Katz are not the only people who believe that guns are the problem in this country when it comes to the mass shootings. MotherJones.com calculated all mass shootings from 1982-2015 and they found that 61 shootings were caused by people who