Effects Of Mass Shootings

From the young victims in schools like sandy hook, to the countless concertgoers gunned downed in Las Vegas at the music festival, the US is no stranger to mass shootings and its devastating effects. Those are just two examples in a never ending, exhaustive list of mass shootings. Guns have been a part of our culture since our independence, but is the violation of our right to bear arms more pressing than a person’s right to a safe life. It is an issue that all Americans ,politicians and citizens, have strong opinions on. The statistics and data give hard evidence that our lack of change and dismissive attitude towards guns is directly tied to the reoccurring amount of mass shootings.It is a complicated issue and unless something is done to

Different criminology and behavioral science articles/studies conclude that there isn’t enough understanding to determine why mass shootings occur. As stated by an article in the “Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology” in 2010 “It is recommended behavioral sciences and mental health researchers increase research efforts on understanding mass killings, as the current socio-economic climate may increase vulnerability to this phenomenon, and the incidents are not well understood despite their notoriety.” Not even experts can concretely say how mental illness directly ties to mass shootings and yet politicians focus more on the mental health aspect of this issue. While, mental health is a likely factor it is a more complicated and less developed part of the problem that experts are still trying to sort out. The statement that mental illness causes gun violence such as mass shootings over simplifies the connection. It also stereotypes the entire population of people living with a mental disability. (Metzl, MacLeish) Not every person with a mental illness desires to shoot up a school or public place. More research and studies need to be done to understand its correlation with violence like mass shootings. A part of the problem that has more controversy, but more evidence is America’s attitude and lifestyle regarding guns. The US has 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world (Vox). And there are an estimated 270 million to 310 million guns in the USA “close to one firearm for every woman, man, and child” (Pew Research Center). This large number of guns in the US plays into why our gun violence rates (including mass shootings) are so high. Simply put, the more guns you have the more gun violence. The fact