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Argumentative Essay On Gun Violence

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Examples of a mentally ill person using a firearm to hurt others occurred in a movie theater in Colorado in 2012 and again six months later at Sandy Hook elementary school in rural Connecticut. Because of these and other similar tragedies, laws have been passed and people have developed strong stances regarding gun ownership among mentally ill people. The issue of the mentally ill and their firearm use is not something new; in 1993, congress passed the Brady law was which prohibited anyone who had ever been “involuntarily committed” from owning a firearm. Along this same line, Metzl and MacLeish (2015) present evidence that supports the claim that mental illness causes gun violence and the mentally ill should not be allowed to own guns at …show more content…

There are many cases in which someone who had been diagnosed with a mental condition used a gun to harm multiple innocent people. According to Metzl and MacLeish, “Reports suggest that up to 60% of perpetrators of mass shootings in the United States since 1970 displayed symptoms including acute paranoia, delusions, and depression before committing their crimes” (240). Although not all mentally ill people are problematic regarding gun ownership, the people who do abuse their privilege create distrust toward mentally ill people. Usually, there are signs that something is not right with a person before he commits a mass shooting, “Classmates felt unsafe around Jared Loughner because he would ‘laugh randomly and loudly at nonevents’ in the weeks before he shot US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 6 other people at a rally in front of a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona” (Metzl and MacLeish 240). How do we let mentally unstable people own weapons when they clearly have used them for evil multiple times? Metzl and Macleish state, “Crimes such as Newtown—where Lanza killed 20 children and 6 adults with a military-grade semiautomatic weapon—appear to fall outside the bounds of sanity: who but an insane person would do such horrifying things” (241). Based on the evidence presented by Metzl and Macleish, the problem of gun violence among the mentally ill would diminish if they were not allowed guns at

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The shooter had a history of mental health problems such as Asperger's syndrome, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. According to Walkup and Rubin (2013), while mental illness is often associated with school shootings, it is not the only factor to consider. The feelings of anger and alienation are frequently overlooked or not effectively addressed in preventing these tragic events. Additionally, access to firearms played a significant role in the Sandy Hook massacre. The shooter had easy access to multiple firearms, including assault weapons, through his mother's legal gun ownership.

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Dr. Reid Meloy gives the author his opinion on the mental health issue behind the national gun control debate. Dr. Meloy believes that mental illnesses cannot and should not be the excuse for gun violence. He is a noted psychologist who has written books and worked for the FBI and CIA, so I believe he is extremely reliable. Also, this blog was posted in February of 2015, so it is more recent than other articles I’ve read about my topic. I used the interview with Dr Meloy in my argument and rebuttal of the mental health issue behind this controversy.

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Multiple gun ownership by an individual has led to increased gun violence and mass shootings. This can be seen in cases where individuals with a history of mental illness or criminal record can obtain multiple firearms, leading to tragic consequences. The pew research center reported that about 66 percent of gun owners in the U.S. own multiple firearms, with few people owning as many as ten or more guns (Parker et al., 2017). This has raised distress about the potential for these individuals to use their excessive collection of firearms for violent and criminal purposes. For instance, the mass shootings that have occurred in recent years have often been conducted by individuals who own multiple firearms.

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It is not okay for people who have mental illnesses to have a gun at all. They're should be testing to see if they have a mental illness or not. This could stop multiple shootings and rampages that are going on in the

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It seems American media has tried to justify many mass shootings, to mental health. It is in the way our society ties these connections that it shows not only our politics, biases, and blind spots but also what it does for those troubled individuals, that acts alone (Metzl, "Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms"). It is hard to turn on a news and not hear about the topic of guns, with multiple mass shooting and the push for gun control, mental health is frivolously thrown around for political gain. When people associate extreme violence with mental health and read about murder trials defendants "not guilty by reason of insanity” it is understandable people do not want to be associated with this image. It

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Much of the criminal activity that takes place today is heavily related to the lack of treatment for mental illness. According to the US National Library of Medicine, approximately 60% of shooter in mass shootings that took place in the United States after 1970 displayed symptoms of acute paranoia, delusions, and depression before committing their inhumane acts. I am sure that most of you are aware of the Sandy Hook shooting that took place on December 12, 2012. The perpetrator, Adam Lanza took the innocent lives of 20 students as well as the lives of 6 staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Lanza had displayed key signs of mental illness as young as the age of three.

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