These are the type of children to most likely be picked on because they are not like other students. This violent act has increased in recent years from 2000-2013 and since 2013 there have been about 215 school shootings. We do not know as to why these mass shootings have been more frequent but it does not necessarily have to do with mental illness. Even though many mass shooters have mental illness it does not mean that these mental illnesses have been increasing to result in a mass shooting. “While many mass shooters had mental-health problems, as the Mother Jones data shows, there is no reason to believe that there has been an increase in mental illness rates in the last several years that could help explain the rise in mass shootings. (In fact, federal research on the prevalence of severe mental illness shows a decrease in recent years.)” (Cohen). The definition for school shooting is when anyone brings in a firearm in a school building and starts shooting. There has been an average about a shooting once a week since 2013. These communities are feared about sending their children to school when
People believe that the government causes certain events in order to make more strict regulations in the country. During the time of the Sandy Hook shooting, President Obama was fighting for more strict gun control within the country. Many people believe that because of this fight the Sandy Hook shooting took place. Society would rather put the blame on the government, rather than accepting the fact that some people just have issues that cause them to perform unthinkable acts. For example, Adam Lanza, the shooter of Sandy Hook elementary. Lanza was 20 years old and had Asperger’s. Asperger’s, a form of autism, is not believed to have played a major role in what caused Lanza to do the shooting a Sandy Hook. Lauren Elder, a clinical psychologist with Autism Speaks says, “Often, their violent acts are self-injurious and spontaneous, the result of frustrated attempts to communicate and not getting their pain or desires heard or addressed.” (Time). Lauren Elder states that in most cases Asperger’s causes one to hurt themselves. This is not likely to be the same for every individual with the disease. Asperger’s could have caused Adam Lanza to become angry and react in harsh ways, resulting in the shooting of Sandy Hook
Passing gun control legislation that creates a universal background check and gun database system as well as passing mental health legislation that improves the health care system’s protocols and policies for assisting people with mental health disorders and that enacts counseling programs in communities and schools will decrease the likelihood of mass shootings in schools. The United States is bitterly divided. Issues of great concern, such as the rise of mass shootings, are partisanized. Both sides of the debate will not comprise or listen to what their opponents have to say. Groups from both sides can only agree that one innocent life taken from gun violence is one too many. Gun control is a complicated topic with no foolproof solution to
On October 1st, 2015 President Barack Obama released a speech regarding the devastating mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. President Obama’s main argument, in his speech, was that we as a nation have put so much money to prevent other disasters but have, for the most part, ignored the idea of proceeding with gun control laws to prevent situations like mass shootings. The President mentions how “it's fair to say that anybody who does this has a sickness in their minds, regardless of what they think their motivations may be. But we are not the only country on Earth that has people with mental illnesses or want to do harm to other people. We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.”. President Obama also uses examples that show how we put effort into on other things that kill but not guns, “When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seatbelt laws because we know it saves lives. So the notion that gun violence is somehow
Lately people have been using guns in a negative way and causing a bad effect on the world. People have been using guns inapropriatly and have been performing mass killings. If guns are being used by people then the people using them should know how to use them correctly, or not being a crazy lunatic. When I was 12 I was playing with a pistol and accidentally shot it, I wasn’t hurt and no one else was hurt but somebody could have been injured badly. Gun laws are the cause to a lot of the violent crimes in the united states and laws need to be changed so people can’t purchase guns as easily that way we aren’t in as much trouble.
There has been a common debate on how we should define mass shootings. From the FBI to CNN, each has their own way of defining this heinous crime. The best definition, however, comes from USA Today’s Behind the Bloodshed, an article with an in-depth analysis of mass shootings throughout America. They define mass shootings as “any incident in which four or more people were killed, including family killings, and with no cooling off period” (Overberg). The first recorded public shooting happened in 1764 in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. A teacher and ten students were shot by four Lenape American Indians. Since then, the rate of mass shootings has been increasing. Between 1982 and 2011, mass shootings occurred throughout the United States every two hundred days. Throughout 2011 and 2014, mass shootings had increased to every sixty-four days and seven of the thirteen mass shootings that had double-digit death tolls, took place in the last nine
There are people who say this is a matter of mental illness and others who say this is about gun control. The people that cling to the belief that these kinds of tragedies happen solely because of mental illnesses are wrong.
The debate of gun control dates back 100s of years,and many people want to ban guns so that no one can have them. That statement is complete ignorance to what really goes on. The debate has many different viewpoints with some being as radical as banning guns to create a false sense of Utopia. The recent rise of school shootings has set off a spark of gun control debates that make little sense. What if the school shooter was met by a principal at the door who happened to be carrying a 9mm handgun under his suit where 99.9% of students did not even know it was there? Guns are a very prominent tool that when in the right hands can lead to the saving of people and hunting animals without any harm
In 1999, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, walked into Columbine High School with shotguns, automatic weapons, and homemade pipe bombs, and killed 13 people, as well as, wounding 20 others, before killing themselves. Close to13 years after the massacre at Columbine, on December 14, 2012, another major school shooting took place in Newtown, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This time, 20-year-old Adam Lanza walked into the elementary school and murdered 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10, as well as, 6 adult faculty members, before killing himself. He used a semi-automatic, AR-15 as well. In more recent news, this past month we witnessed yet another mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Nicholas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 17 people. He used and AR-15 style assault rifle to carry out the
In an analysis provided, 22 percent of the perpetrators of 235 mass killing, could be considered mentally ill, many of which were carried out with firearms (Qui). Almost 25% of mass shooting killers are being considered mentally ill
Mass Shootings have been pretty common in the U.S. In the past 30 years or so. According to the Congressional Research Service, there have been 78 mass shootings in the United States since 1983. The shootings have resulted in 547 deaths and 1,023 casualties. Mass shootings are only responsible for a very small percentage of deaths in the United States, but mass shootings are happening more often than ever, a mass shooting happens on average one time a month. Most of the suspects of mass shootings are young males who usually commit the crime on their own with careful planning of the event. Most perpetrators have a fascination with weapons and the shootings usually occur in broad daylight in public places (Frances).
Gun violence is an unquestionable issue in America, with the United States ranking as one of the worst with both homicides and suicides using guns. That being said, we outnumber Mexico in gun related deaths and among first-world countries we rank far above others in the number of gun deaths, such as England and Australia. Consequently, we live in one of the only first world countries that does not have extensive gun laws and restrictions to gun access. Aside from the countless homicides and suicides by firearm in this country, one particular issue within this predicament is mass shootings, with the most recent mass shooting occurring on February 14th, 2018 at a high school in Parkland, Florida where 17 people were killed. Although, it may seem like an easy fix to just implement gun control laws into our society to eliminate gun violence, but it is important to note that Americans own nearly half of all firearms globally, which is roughly 325 million guns; when
Although many of these shootings occur every year, there many steps that can be placed in order to prevent them from occurring in the future. Creating gun laws that provide better background checks on the buyer and family can help lessen the chances of a mentally ill person from obtaining a gun. Spreading awareness of a person with a mental illness-or generally spreading information of the many different mental illness- can also help prevent mass murders such as Sandy Hook from occurring. Finally, researching ways to prevent mental illnesses from forming can help prevent these violent crimes. If the blame is on the illness, why not find ways to cease them from affecting more people? Guns in the hands of the mentally ill are believed by many is the reason why mass shootings happen. These are some of the preventative measures that can be placed in order to stop these heinous crimes from
On December 14, 2012 a 20 year old 120 pound autistic kid with assburgers syndrome strolled into Sandy Hook elementary school strapped and loaded with over forty pounds of weaponry and murdered 26 people in less than eleven minutes and killed a ratio of 26:1 at a 96 murder percentage rate, only injuring one unknown person by a rickshaw bullet in the foot. Thus making this uncoordinated, barley able to tie his own shoe, autistic, scrawny Adam Lanza the deadliest mass shooter of all time. Some conspersists have a hard time believing all this, I happen to be one of those conscpetist.
Generally when people think if the word illness they think of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hemophilia, etc. These are all physical illnesses. Not many people realize that mental illnesses are also just as impactful on lives. One in four people suffer from mental disorder today, however few receive help; only 50% of the ill receive proper treatment. One in four people is a pretty large ratio. These people could be your family or friends, and the fact that many of them are not able to receive the proper treatment that they require should be alarming. Mental illness affects more lives than one would expect and this epidemic could be easily solved if mental healthcare were to be more accessible. Currently, The United States spends as little $113 billion on mental health treatment. That works out to about 5.6 percent of the national health-care spending, according to a 2011