Argumentative Essay: Do Guns Kill People?

The purpose of this draft is to inform the readers of the correlation between guns and drugs. In this draft I hope to inform the general public, the students and Professor of ENGL 111, how drugs may be implicated in many of the mass shootings. As we are all aware guns do not shoot people, it takes a person to decide to use it. It is believed by many experts that medication alters the mind and the mind controls the trigger finger. Guns do not kill people, people kill people. The focus of this draft is to convey information or ideas as clearly and effectively as possible.

It seems there exists a measure of controversy and assessment over what engineers mass shootings. However many experts believe there is only one solution and that is, restrict individuals taking psychotic drugs from purchasing guns. However, this restriction would inherently take guns away from law abiding citizens taking pills for depression have no a clue of the effects of psychotic drugs (Adams, 2012).
Many experts do agree that there is a definitive association between drugs and mass shootings. However there are some groups that try to hide the
connection. The mainstream media sponsored by Big Pharma is one such group. They seem to speculate that if drugs were known to cause these devastating mass shootings, the drug industries could lose billions in profit and may even be subject to law suits. At the same time, these so called Big Pharma CEO’s know exactly the horrific effects these dangerous psychotropic they sell can and do have (Freeman, 2013).
The fact is there has been 35 school shootings and/or school-related acts of violence committed by individuals withdrawing or taking psychiatric drugs. The results of these shootings are 169 wounded and 79 killed. One example of a senseless shooting is of 31-year-old Myron May, a Florida State University alum. Consequently May took his gun and began shooting students in the library. The result of that incident was three students wounded and May being shot and killed by police. It was later discovered that May had been under a psychologist care and had been prescribed the antidepressant Wellbutrin and the ADHD drug Vyvanse. It is also important to note that Hydroxyzine and Seroquel were found after the shooting ( Hall, 2014).
An article written by Marie Michaels (2012), she talks about a terrifying school shooting in Newtown Connecticut, The Washington Post reported that 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza, killer of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, Connecticut was on pharmaceutical drugs.
The article goes on to stipulate how in the past 25 years every incident of violence in schools has been linked to pharmaceutical drugs (Michaels, 2012). In Arianna Huffington’s syndicated newspaper column dated July 9, 1998, Dr. Peter Breggin, psychiatrist and author (Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications) states, “I have no doubt that Prozac can cause or contribute to violence and suicide. I’ve seen many cases. In a recent clinical trial, 6% of the children became psychotic on Prozac. And manic psychosis can lead to violence.” (Michaels,
2012).
Noting the compelling nature of evidence presented there is yet an interesting article written by Martha Rosenberg. Martha Rosenberg is an award-winning investigative public health reporter who covers the food, drug and gun industries, and also the author of Prescription Drugs Are Often Behind Mass Shootings 2012” (Rosenberg, 2012). In Rosenberg’s article she describes how prescription drugs are linked not only to mass shootings but high rates of suicide and violence as well. One amazing incident she describes is that of three men in their 70's and 80's. Apparently these men had beaten their wives to death with hammers while under the influence of psychiatric drugs. "The kind of energy, rage and insanity seen in a lot of crimes today was not seen before SSRIs appeared," said Rosie Meysenburg, who co-founded SSRI Stories, in an interview shortly before her death this year (Rosenberg, 2012).
When you compare psychiatric drugs against school shootings in America, the connection between the two are indisputable. However when the public hears of these incidences, they are extremely vague about the drugs involved and just label them as medication. Certain and further research is necessary to establish the link between violence and drugs. However, the big pharmaceutical manufactures critics claim that such research is held back primarily because of low standards for reportage that these companies are to stand by. Kurt Danysh, age 18, and on Prozac, killed his father with a shotgun. He is now behind prison bars, and writes letters, trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs can kill (Larson, 2015). These are just typical stories spread across the country in daily newspapers after a shooting. Another example is, Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Colombine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold's medical records have never been made available to the public (Larson, 2015).
Equally important is an in-person interview with Dr. David Healy criticized pharmaceutical companies for making billions Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, known as SSRIs. Healy was reported saying, “Psychotropic drugs prescribed for school children cause violent behavior” ( Corsi, 2013).
A 2013 article written by Dan Roberts of AmmoLand, provocatively titled, “Nearly Every Mass Shooting in the Last 20 Years Shares One Thing in Common, & It’s NOT Weapons ” (Blannelberry, 2014). This article claims that mass shootings are perpetrated by individuals on psychotic drugs. According to a 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal, the use of psychiatric medications among adults grew 22 percent from 2001 to 2010 to the point where in 2010 approximately one in five adults took at least one psychiatric drug, e.g. antidepressants, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety medications (Blannelberry, 2014).
An article written by Rebecca Terrell, (2013) “Psychiatric Meds: Prescription for Murder?” the author writes about the astounding connection between violence and drugs. In the writers article was a statement made by Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute “In virtually every mass school shooting during the past 15 years, the shooter has been on or in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs,” ( Terrell, 2013).