There have
been at least nineteen deadly mass shootings in the United States of America in
2019 thus far. The places change, the numbers change, but the same weapon
remains the same when it comes to this Public Crisis Health Issue. The issue is
in the U.S., people want to kill other people with gun fire, and those people
who have the desire to intentionally hurt others by shooting them are labeled
as mentally ill, but are they really mentally ill? Mass shootings that are
public are often looked at as a small fraction of the country’s gun deaths
because they happen without fair warning most of the time. According to
research, the statistics of mass shootings in the United States officially
began, reporting wise in August 1966 at the University of Texas where a sniper
fired down on students, and was eventually killed by police officers in call of
protection.
It is
difficult to understand why this Public Health Crisis is underway in the United
States. Perhaps the most effects of school shootings are the most disturbing.
While there are hundreds of school shootings that have taken place in the
United States for the past 15-20 years, only
11 have been classified as mass shootings. The deadliest
school shooting in the United States took place in Blacksburg Virginia on the
campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on April 16th,
2007. On December 14th, 2012, a decade after the Virginia Tech
shooting a young man drove to the Sandy Hook Elementary School of Newtown
Connecticut and killed six administrators and twenty children before committing
suicide. The children who were murdered were between the ages of 5-10 years
old. The horrific incident led to a change for gun laws in the United States.
How are mass
shootings effecting the United States? We know that it is effecting our youth’s
safety at school and interfering with their education, but in what other ways
is senseless gun violence effecting the United States? It Is believed that mass
shooters are encouraged by previous mass shooters, but why? According to research,
mass shootings can have a mentally effect on victims and offenders. PTSD,
trauma, and anxiety can take a toll on victims or the family of victims when
mass shootings take place. Experiences of PTSD, trauma, and anxiety followed by
being a victim of a mass shooting can cause elicit anxiousness over a course of
time. 
Mass
shootings in American has risen rapidly overtime. The death count per shooting
is rising in the United States as well. It seems as if the deadliest years of
mass shootings were in 2017, 2018, and followed by 2019. In the 1970s the
average of mass shootings killings were 5.7 lives per year. In the 1980s the
average rose to 17%. Mass shootings represent just one-half of 1% of the more
14,000 firearms caused homicides per year in the United States. This public
health crisis epidemic has become disturbingly a common place in the United States.
Mass shootings in America becoming a public health crisis in America has become
uniquely an American problem overall.
Looking at
other countries and how they operate around gun violence differs from the way
America handles this public health crisis. Japan has nearly eliminated gun
violence and gun deaths by initiating thorough background checks that includes
drug and mental health test. It is evident that the United States should take
some initiative from Japan simply because every offender in the U.S. that
formulates a mass shooting claims or is claimed to have a mental health
problem. President Trump spent hours at his golf course in New Jersey after two
mass shootings in the United States. Trump claimed that “Hate is no place for the United States, we are going to take care of
it.”, but in reality the issue hasn’t been handled, the public health
crisis hasn’t been decreased.
Nearly half
of residents of the United States are afraid of being victims of mass shootings
due to how common it has become in America. In my opinion and from my
perspective I believe that the mass shootings can decrease overtime, but it
will take a lot of plans to help heal mental illnesses. The effect the media
has on mass shootings are more serious than we think. The effect of media
coverage on mass shootings can continue to help and hinder those who are
victims as well as the families. It would take a lot for mass shootings to
completely stop not only in the United States, but in the world. The only thing
that can be done is increasing of security and consistency in trying to remain safe,
but in reality it is a sad case that this Public Health Crisis causes people to
develop PSTD as well as having to wonder if their job, their children’s school,
churches, and etc. is safe to go to.
