MM 3103 -Chasity Gossett: Public Crisis Paper- Mass Shootings In America

The recent amount of mass shootings across the U.S. have caused an uproar and debate over how gun violence in society can be prevented. But, how can gun violence in society be prevented, where does the prevention of gun violence begin? The prevention of gun violence begins with recognizing that gun violence isn’t just a homicide or injury issue, but gun violence is a Public Health Crisis Issue overall. We know that the horror stories about mass shootings demands explicit attention from the media and news, but how can reporting these stories help prevent such acts in America? Will increasing security systems and lock down drills in facilities help, or is it just all for practice at this point?

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 16^th, 2007. On December 14^th, 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. Image result for mass shootings in america

Image result for mass shootings in america

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.