School Shooting Research Papers
Over the past decade America has witnessed multiple school shootings, including recent mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and Roeburg, Oregon. Growing up in the town right next to Newtown I was witness to the horrors and affect the shooting had on the community. Realizing how this shooting impacted not only Newtown, but also all towns in Southwestern Connecticut and around the world, opened my eyes to the crisis of school shootings. There have been stricter gun laws put in place, but as seen by the shooting in Oregon this fall, the system is still flawed. A suggestion of a solution to this crisis is to have background checks on not only the person buying the gun, but also people living where the gun is going to be stored. These checks need
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to include any information about mental illness or signs of violence, including the mixture of substance abuse, reported by any physician or psychiatrist. Based on previous shootings many of shooters have been recognized as mentally ill before the tragedy took place. If we have the opportunity to prevent another unfortunate crime from happening, then I think it is in the government’s best interest to do so. In the aftermath of Newtown, Connecticut, and the Sandy Hook shooting the President took the stand and promised change in the current gun laws. After almost three years there have been no changes in the national laws, and only 15 out of 50 states have made any improvements to their own gun laws (“State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year After Newtown”). These gun laws include changes to the requirement of background checks and reporting mental illness. On the mental illness side, the state of Connecticut, made a law that “prohibits people involuntarily committed for mental illness from obtaining gun permits for five years … ,” while New York’s state law “… provides a mechanism to remove firearms from people with mental illnesses” (“State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year After Newtown”). Although each of these are just a small step in getting national laws like these, it will continue to help push other states, and the government to incorporate stricter laws on background checks when purchasing gun permits. Before continuing to further my explanation of the gun violence crisis and its relationship to mental illness, it needs to be made clear that the problem at hand is not that mental illness is the cause of gun violence, but that it takes a certain type of person to commit these crimes.
This can be leveled out into two main ideas of mental illness involving substance abuse, and untreated mentally ill. It is shown through observation of gun related crimes that there is a very low correlation between the diagnosed mentally ill and violence. The problem is “a large body of studies found that co-occurring psychiatric disorders and substance abuse are associated with violence” (Rosenberg 2). Repeating that it is not the mentally ill we are attacking, but the belief is that you have to be mentally unstable to commit a crime with this level of violence. Not every mentally ill person is likely to commit such a crime. “Study findings suggest that subgroups of persons with severe or untreated mental illness might be at increased risk for violence during periods surrounding psychotic episodes or psychiatric hospitalizations” (Metzl 1). After further investigation into the subject one may find that it is the unrecognized, untreated mentally ill that have caused crimes such as the tragedies in Tucson, Arizona; Aurora, Colorado; and Newtown, Connecticut. In these three shootings there was evidence that “mental illness was potentially present in these individuals [the shooters]” (Metzl, MacLeish 1). These findings caused uproar in the government, and the focus is now on “mentally ill individuals, early detection of mental illness during school years, and the interactions of such individuals with physicians and the mental health system as a way to solve gun violence” (Metzl, MacLeish 1). The crisis is how to stop gun violence, and many signs for solutions are leading people to mental health systems. Mental illness needs to begin to be detected before the violence
happens. Along with the mental illness of the person buying the gun there is the issue of where the gun will be stored and who will have access to this weapon. That’s why the background checks should be done on family members. In the case of Adam Lanza and Newtown, Connecticut, he got the guns from his mom’s gun collection and then used them to kill his mother, 20 children, and 6 teachers. “When people with mental illness are violent, it is almost always interpersonal (87%), typically occurs in the home, and the targets are usually family and/or friends” (Rosenberg 2). We want to protect the safety of gun owners and their families. With this information we can tell each gun owner how to keep guns in their houses safely and out of harms reach. This can decrease gun violence in young adults, and hopefully decrease mass shootings around the world.
If every year you have mental health visitations with a psychiatrist either through work, or school, these are the records that can go on the background checks. When applying for a gun license, and purchasing a gun the background checks must be run on the person and his or her family that will be living where the gun is to be stored. If anything about the family checks out that they seem to have a high chance of violence, then other precautions will need to be taken. Information will also be given to gun owners to help them protect their children, mentally ill or not, from the gun violence around the world.
to include any information about mental illness or signs of violence, including the mixture of substance abuse, reported by any physician or psychiatrist. Based on previous shootings many of shooters have been recognized as mentally ill before the tragedy took place. If we have the opportunity to prevent another unfortunate crime from happening, then I think it is in the government’s best interest to do so. In the aftermath of Newtown, Connecticut, and the Sandy Hook shooting the President took the stand and promised change in the current gun laws. After almost three years there have been no changes in the national laws, and only 15 out of 50 states have made any improvements to their own gun laws (“State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year After Newtown”). These gun laws include changes to the requirement of background checks and reporting mental illness. On the mental illness side, the state of Connecticut, made a law that “prohibits people involuntarily committed for mental illness from obtaining gun permits for five years … ,” while New York’s state law “… provides a mechanism to remove firearms from people with mental illnesses” (“State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year After Newtown”). Although each of these are just a small step in getting national laws like these, it will continue to help push other states, and the government to incorporate stricter laws on background checks when purchasing gun permits. Before continuing to further my explanation of the gun violence crisis and its relationship to mental illness, it needs to be made clear that the problem at hand is not that mental illness is the cause of gun violence, but that it takes a certain type of person to commit these crimes.
This can be leveled out into two main ideas of mental illness involving substance abuse, and untreated mentally ill. It is shown through observation of gun related crimes that there is a very low correlation between the diagnosed mentally ill and violence. The problem is “a large body of studies found that co-occurring psychiatric disorders and substance abuse are associated with violence” (Rosenberg 2). Repeating that it is not the mentally ill we are attacking, but the belief is that you have to be mentally unstable to commit a crime with this level of violence. Not every mentally ill person is likely to commit such a crime. “Study findings suggest that subgroups of persons with severe or untreated mental illness might be at increased risk for violence during periods surrounding psychotic episodes or psychiatric hospitalizations” (Metzl 1). After further investigation into the subject one may find that it is the unrecognized, untreated mentally ill that have caused crimes such as the tragedies in Tucson, Arizona; Aurora, Colorado; and Newtown, Connecticut. In these three shootings there was evidence that “mental illness was potentially present in these individuals [the shooters]” (Metzl, MacLeish 1). These findings caused uproar in the government, and the focus is now on “mentally ill individuals, early detection of mental illness during school years, and the interactions of such individuals with physicians and the mental health system as a way to solve gun violence” (Metzl, MacLeish 1). The crisis is how to stop gun violence, and many signs for solutions are leading people to mental health systems. Mental illness needs to begin to be detected before the violence
happens. Along with the mental illness of the person buying the gun there is the issue of where the gun will be stored and who will have access to this weapon. That’s why the background checks should be done on family members. In the case of Adam Lanza and Newtown, Connecticut, he got the guns from his mom’s gun collection and then used them to kill his mother, 20 children, and 6 teachers. “When people with mental illness are violent, it is almost always interpersonal (87%), typically occurs in the home, and the targets are usually family and/or friends” (Rosenberg 2). We want to protect the safety of gun owners and their families. With this information we can tell each gun owner how to keep guns in their houses safely and out of harms reach. This can decrease gun violence in young adults, and hopefully decrease mass shootings around the world.
If every year you have mental health visitations with a psychiatrist either through work, or school, these are the records that can go on the background checks. When applying for a gun license, and purchasing a gun the background checks must be run on the person and his or her family that will be living where the gun is to be stored. If anything about the family checks out that they seem to have a high chance of violence, then other precautions will need to be taken. Information will also be given to gun owners to help them protect their children, mentally ill or not, from the gun violence around the world.