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Rebecca Cummings

Mrs. Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 1010, Section 4

4 December, 2018

The Effect of Mental Illness on Shootings and How to Prevent Gun Violence

On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza stepped into Sandy Hook Elementary School in

Newtown, Connecticut. He was armed with more guns and ammunition than the average soldier

carries into battle. On that day, Lanza killed six adults and twenty children in six minutes before

shooting himself in the head. Lanza was diagnosed as schizophrenic after the shooting occurred.

In the same year James Holmes went to a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado on July 20, and

open fired on individuals watching a showing of ​Batman​, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Holmes

killed twelve people and injured an additional fifty-eight. Research suggested that Holmes had

some form of mental illness as well as a socially awkward personality. In 2014, Elliot Rodger

killed six college students in Isla Vista, California. Elliot Rodger had been previously diagnosed

with Asperger’s disorder and he took medication for this mental illness (pars. in Metzl 2). Lanza,

Holmes, and Rodger all had a connection to some form of mental illness.

Many scientists have conducted tests to figure out the connection between mental

disorders and gun violence. In an article about gun violence related to mental illness by Jonathan

Metzl, data was collected on the percentage of shooters with any type of mental disorder. The

data showed that about 60% of shooters had some type of mental illness (Metzl 2). Many people

believe that a shooter must have a mental illness to attack someone, but is that true? Many people

would agree that it is true. However, other reports suggest that violence is not caused by mental
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illness alone. Latter research done by Appelbaum shows that only about 3% of criminal acts are

connected to mental disorders (pars. in Metzl 3). Workers for The National Center for Health

Statistics conducted a test to “show that fewer than 5% of the 120,000 gun-related killings in the

United states were perpetrated by people diagnosed with mental illness” (qtd. in Metzl 3). These

statistics show that the relation between firearm violence and mental illness is extremely low.

So what do all shootings have in common? There are three main factors that are required

for any act of violence: a perpetrator, a form or means of attack, and a target to attack. The three

factors are referred to as “the trinity of violence” in the book ​Rampage Nation: Securing

America From Mass Shootings​, by Louis Klarevas (28). Klarevas also says that, “as long as we

can prevent people from contemplating acts of physical aggression, exploiting vulnerabilities to

hurt others, ​or​ possessing instruments of deadly force, we can keep society safe” (28). Take

away one of the three factors and society will be safer. How can gun violence be prevented? Gun

violence should be considered a major epidemic that needs to be treated. The steps to preventing

gun violence are requiring background checks, adding protection in schools by arming teachers,

regard gun violence as a serious public health catastrophe, acknowledge how guns affect

teenagers, and create a safe environment for teenagers to live in.

The first step to preventing gun violence is requiring background checks for every person

buying a gun. Part of the check would be determining if the buyer has any criminal background.

Another part would be determining if the buyer has any kind of mental illness. Background

checks are simple, and eliminate the risk of firearms falling into the wrong hands. If Adam Lanza

or any of the shooters were diagnosed before their criminal acts, then there would have been a

lower chance that a shooting would have occurred. Studies show that a little more than
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three-quarters of gun buyers got their guns from someone who did not have required background

checks (pars. Vernick, et al. 98). The statistics prove that requiring background checks is very

important for ensuring firearms do not fall into the wrong hands. The map below shows the

amount of Universal Background Checks across the United States, and if they are licensed or not

(Vernick, et al. See Fig. 1). According to the map there are not very many states that do

Universal Background Checks, and if they have them, most are without licenses. This shows that

background checks need to be better enforced across the country. There are not enough states

requiring background checks to be able to prevent firearms from falling into the wrong hands.

Fig. 1. UBC rates in the United States (Vernick, et al. Fig. 1).

The second step that many people look to as a solution for preventing shootings in

schools specifically, is arming teachers with firearms. This step is very controversial, though,
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because many people believe that arming teachers will only make gun violence worse. To arm

teachers with guns there must be a way to supply the guns, a program to train teachers, and to

provide a safe way to store the guns in the classrooms. Supplying the guns and training the

teachers would cost a lot of money that schools do not have. Also, the training is not something

that every teacher would want to be a part of. Not every teacher would use or want a gun.

Society must not rely on arming teachers as the best way to prevent gun violence. There are too

many consequences that come from arming teachers.

Rogers shared an example of a police officer that performed a gun safety demonstration

that ended wrong when his weapon fired during a safety demonstration (pars. 862). Rogers uses

this example to demonstrate “if weapon safety cannot be maintained by an educator with the

highest standard of firearms training available to civilians, what chance do the recipients of less

rigorous training have?” ​(​862). It is import to recognize that even official officers of the state

cannot always keep their guns safe even after all of the training they have gone through.

Teachers cannot be asked to participate in gun training because the training would not be

sufficient enough. Rogers states another important piece of information when she proposes that it

would be a secondary solution because it only reduces the amount of casualties during a shooting

(pars. 863). Even if teachers were armed, it would only decrease the risk of deaths during

shootings. This being said, arming teachers can still be a possible solution to gun violence in

schools by providing a way for teachers to protect themselves and their students.

The third step is to treat gun violence as a severe public health crisis. This includes all

gun related mortalities such as shootings, homicides, and suicides. Studies show that about 66%

of deaths caused by guns are suicides​ ​(pars. Campos-Outcalt 653). Doug Campos-Outcalt argues
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that gun violence should be looked at like other public health crisis such as the tobacco crisis and

the drunk driving crisis. Both of these public health crisis have been treated in some way. The

tobacco crisis was treated by increasing the cost of tobacco, restricting tobacco advertising, and

restricting the use of tobacco​ ​(pars. Campos-Outcalt 653). For the drunk driving crisis, data was

collected on the impact of crashes related to drunk driving, and then laws were put into place to

prohibit drunk driving. The legal age limit for a driver was also put in place. Campos-Outcalt

takes these two examples of treated public health crisis to prove that gun violence can be treated

like one as well:

“We can achieve similar improvements in gun-related mortality if we establish and

maintain a comprehensive database, encourage and fund research, and are willing to

adopt some commonsense product improvements and ownership restrictions that,

nevertheless, preserve the right for most to responsibly own a firearm.” (653)

Gun violence can be prevented if the public comes together to collect research about firearm

related deaths and put in place restrictions on people buying guns. Society needs to recognize

that gun violence is a very serious epidemic in the United States and find a way to treat it.

The fourth step is to address the effects of gun carrying on the minds of adolescents.

Studies have shown that more and more teenagers have been exposed to some from of firearm

related experiences such as gun carrying and gun violence. A national survey reported that about

5.1% of high school students carried guns (pars. Loughran, et al. 350). That number may not be

significantly big, but it proves that teenagers are exposed to guns too much. Many of the

teenagers did not believe that gun carrying was dangerous to be exposed to. There is a paradox of

reality when it comes to carrying guns. Most humans carry a gun for self-defense, which would
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lead to a lower risk of being exposed to violence if no one uses their gun to attack. It also helps

the carrier to feel a false sense of safety. However, the more guns there are around the more

likely that one of those carriers is carrying their gun not for self-defense, but to attack someone.

People carrying guns have a lower awareness of the consequences of having a gun, and the

likelihood of being exposed to violence (pars. Loughran, et al. 350). This is a serious problem

that must be addressed.

The fifth step is to establish a safe environment for teenagers to live in. More and more

households are filling up with gun-owners. The percentage of households with guns has gone

from 39% in 2000, to 41% in 2015 (Barone 64). The percentage constantly rises higher and

higher. To ensure that the rising percentage of gun-ownership does not lead to higher rates in

violence, reasonable and reliable restrictions must be placed on gun access. To do this, not only

are background checks required, but also put in place policies to restrict and regulate the buying

of firearms.

To conclude, gun violence is a serious public health crisis in the United States.

Thousands of people die every year from shootings, homicides, and suicides. Gun violence can

be prevented by having required background checks, added protection in schools by arming

teachers, addressing gun violence as a health crisis, assessing and treating the effects of gun

violence on adolescents, and creating a safer society for people to live in. Research done in 2017

showed the amount of support from gun owners and non-gun owners gave to enact many policies

for preventing gun violence such as using background checks. The research indicated that the

public of both sides supported policies for preventing gun violence (pars. Barry 880). Most

people support the idea of taking steps and putting in policies to prevent gun violence, even if
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they are gun owners. If these policies were put in place, future school shootings, suicides,

homicides, and accidental injury by firearms could be prevented. There would be no more Sandy

Hook Elementary shootings were dozens of children and teachers die. The world would be a

better and safer place.

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Works Cited

Barone, Emily. “One Nation, Up In Arms.” Time, vol. 188, no. 16/17, Oct. 2016, p. 64.

EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=118831096&site=ehost-live.

Barry, Colleen L., et al. “Public Support for Gun Violence Prevention Policies Among Gun

Owners and Non-Gun Owners in 2017.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no.

7, July 2018, pp. 878–881. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304432.

Campos-Outcalt, Doug. “Treat Gun Violence like the Public Health Crisis It Is.” Journal of

Family Practice, vol. 66, no. 11, Nov. 2017, p. 653. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=126057938&site=ehost-live.

Klarevas, Louis. “Rampage Nation : Securing America From Mass Shootings.” Amherst, New

York: Prometheus Books, 2016.

Loughran, Thomas A., et al. “Effect of Gun Carrying on Perceptions of Risk Among Adolescent

Offenders.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 106, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 350–352.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302971.

Metzl, Jonathan M. and Kenneth T. MacLeish. “Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics

of American firearms” American journal of public health vol. 105,2 (2015): 240-9. Web.

Accessed 11/16/18.

Rogers, Melanie, et al. “Is Arming Teachers Our Nation’s Best Response to Gun Violence? The
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Perspective of Public Health Students.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 108, no.

7, July 2018, pp. 862–863. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304477.

Vernick, Jon S., et al. “Background Checks for All Gun Buyers and Gun Violence Restraining

Orders: State Efforts to Keep Guns from High-Risk Persons.” Journal of Law, Medicine

& Ethics, vol. 45, Mar. 2017, pp. 98–102. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1073110517703344.