Mental Illness and Mass Shootings
Over the past couple of years there have been a series of more than 200 mass killings in the U.S (“Behind the Blood shed: The Untold Story of America’s Mass Killings.”), and often times catastrophic events like mass murders tend to receive large amounts of publicity, especially if the shooting is committed by someone with some type of mental health problem. It seems to be of the norm now to hear of such cases where the perpetrators suffered some type of mental trauma. As a result of this, there has been an increase in negative attitudes towards people with mental health issues. Although, mental disorders are very common in the United States, the mentally ill are not a threat to society. The public loves to …show more content…
There has been an increase of members of society calling for the state and national governments to implement policies on gun restrictions. Many advocates feel that implementing laws on gun restriction is a tremendous step in the right direction; it is also an attempt that will keep these catastrophic incidents from happening. However, recent Supreme Court rulings have made it very difficult to implement restriction policies. The Aurora massacre led to a series of proposals on gun control policy. One, implement background checks to prevent dangerous individuals with severe mental disorders from acquiring assault weapons, and a legislation to prohibit large capacity magazines. In 2008, President Gorge W. Bush applied the pen to the legislation enacting restrictions for those with serious mental health problems, but efforts to ban large capacity magazines have failed. Abiding by the constitution the courts often time rule that the constitution protects a person’s right to own a gun, and one cannot simply deprived away that right. Now it is indisputable that people that have committed violent acts should not be allowed to poses an assault weapon. However, notions that mental illness caused any particular shooting, or that advance psychiatric attention might prevent these crimes, are more complicated than they often seem.( “People With Mental Illnesses Are Scapegoated as Cause of Mass
Over the past couple of years there have been a series of more than 200 mass killings in the U.S (“Behind the Blood shed: The Untold Story of America’s Mass Killings.”), and often times catastrophic events like mass murders tend to receive large amounts of publicity, especially if the shooting is committed by someone with some type of mental health problem. It seems to be of the norm now to hear of such cases where the perpetrators suffered some type of mental trauma. As a result of this, there has been an increase in negative attitudes towards people with mental health issues. Although, mental disorders are very common in the United States, the mentally ill are not a threat to society. The public loves to …show more content…
There has been an increase of members of society calling for the state and national governments to implement policies on gun restrictions. Many advocates feel that implementing laws on gun restriction is a tremendous step in the right direction; it is also an attempt that will keep these catastrophic incidents from happening. However, recent Supreme Court rulings have made it very difficult to implement restriction policies. The Aurora massacre led to a series of proposals on gun control policy. One, implement background checks to prevent dangerous individuals with severe mental disorders from acquiring assault weapons, and a legislation to prohibit large capacity magazines. In 2008, President Gorge W. Bush applied the pen to the legislation enacting restrictions for those with serious mental health problems, but efforts to ban large capacity magazines have failed. Abiding by the constitution the courts often time rule that the constitution protects a person’s right to own a gun, and one cannot simply deprived away that right. Now it is indisputable that people that have committed violent acts should not be allowed to poses an assault weapon. However, notions that mental illness caused any particular shooting, or that advance psychiatric attention might prevent these crimes, are more complicated than they often seem.( “People With Mental Illnesses Are Scapegoated as Cause of Mass