As of February 15th 2018 according to Sam Morris and The Guardian US interactive team there has been 1,624 mass shootings in the past 1,870 days. A mass shooting is defined by the FBI as a shooting in which 4 or more people were killed in the incident. With that being said it is clear through history that the number of mass killings has been going up at dramatic rates causing more and more conflict between communities. The question that has been asked time after time again is why are these numbers increasing? There is no single reason for the increase of mass shootings but there are many factors that have played a role in this appalling fact. Some of which include Violent video games that have been proven to affect the brain in physical and
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That is the current standard and those numbers are getting worse by the day with help from the news media. The news media has a certain way of looking at these crimes where rather than focusing on the people who are suffering because of the crime they rather decide to focus their attention to the shooter. Local news in areas where these crimes have occured often complain to bigger news coverage places because they don't understand the deeper thought of why the crime was committed and the impact it will have on its residents. When these companies show the alleged killer they sometimes interview them giving publicity in the wrong place. Young adults and adults who watch the news realize how much attention comes with these mass murders, an example of this is in 2009 when Morne Harmse age 18 told a judge he murdered his fellow classmate Jacques Pretorius solely for the attention that came with it. He was then sentences to 20 years for murder of the third degree which as a child watching might not understand the severity of this crime and the impact it has of its …show more content…
According to the Los Angeles Times at least 59% of the mass shootings that were committed have been carried out by people who have been diagnosed with a serious mental disorder. Mental disorders are taken too lightly today which can often lead to these mass shootings. These unmedicated mental illnesses cause many problems for the families as well as the person with the illness. In some cases it was the parents of the child with the mental illness who committed the crime due to pressure they felt their child was getting, being treated unfair like and
That is the current standard and those numbers are getting worse by the day with help from the news media. The news media has a certain way of looking at these crimes where rather than focusing on the people who are suffering because of the crime they rather decide to focus their attention to the shooter. Local news in areas where these crimes have occured often complain to bigger news coverage places because they don't understand the deeper thought of why the crime was committed and the impact it will have on its residents. When these companies show the alleged killer they sometimes interview them giving publicity in the wrong place. Young adults and adults who watch the news realize how much attention comes with these mass murders, an example of this is in 2009 when Morne Harmse age 18 told a judge he murdered his fellow classmate Jacques Pretorius solely for the attention that came with it. He was then sentences to 20 years for murder of the third degree which as a child watching might not understand the severity of this crime and the impact it has of its …show more content…
According to the Los Angeles Times at least 59% of the mass shootings that were committed have been carried out by people who have been diagnosed with a serious mental disorder. Mental disorders are taken too lightly today which can often lead to these mass shootings. These unmedicated mental illnesses cause many problems for the families as well as the person with the illness. In some cases it was the parents of the child with the mental illness who committed the crime due to pressure they felt their child was getting, being treated unfair like and