why still?

W H Y S T I L L ?

“...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

For the past decade or two, tragic school shootings have struck one community after another. They strike innocent towns, leav-ing only grief and anger behind. Many ripples of action have been the effect of these events. For example, after the Highland Ranch STEM school shooting, Colorado officials unanimously voted to provide $10 million towards improving school safety and to provide more resources for mental illness help, such as more school-assigned physiatrists. In events like these, the blame falls on one of two things: the laws surrounding firearms and/or how schools and authorities fail to not provide resources to certain individuals. While neither of these causes are entirely ‘fixable,’ they can at least be minimized. After all, some progress is better than no progress. Unfortunately, any step towards is always met with challenges Mental illness is always a sensitive topic within the general public. While mental illness doesn’t define or justify a crime, it sure does provide a potential cause for someone’s acts. In almost every public shooting, including those in schools, the shooter has had some history with mental illness. According to a CNBC article titled “Inside the mind of Nikolas Cruz and other mass school shooters,” Dr. Alan Lipman has described three common categories for a mass killer. He has come up with these categories by becoming a certified expert of the psychology of violence and following mass murder cases since 1998. These categories include A person between 16-25 who is depressed with a fascination for violence, a psychotic individual, and either a sociopath or a psychopath. Notice how all of these categories deal in some way with mental disorders. This lays some reasoning as to why the public demands more action to recognize early warning signs and resources at-risk people can go to. For at-risk teens, many more obstacles approach. Seeking professional mental help can be very expensive and this makes receiving help near-to-impossible for many teens. Therefore, this students’ only resource would be the professionals inside their own school. Every school has counselors that are assigned a cluster of students. These counselors aid students in everything from class registration to practical counseling. However, at times, student problems might be too serious for a simple sit down with a counselor. This is where a school psychologist would come in. Unfortunately, according to a Health Affairs report, in over half of U.S. counties, there are zero licensed psychologists. This makes such an impact because this prevents students who need serious help from obtaining it. By highlighting this heavy influence of mental health on mass crime, it might bring light to those in leadership over schools, whether that be superintendents or even principals. Maybe then, more effort would be made towards reaching out and giving aid to those in need. Unfortunately, even if we, as a country, are able to improve the understanding and outreach to individuals with mental health issues, we can’t expect this problem to go away so easily. After all, normally people need weapons to harm others. The Constitution says that all citizens are entitled to a right to bear arms. This even reaches out to military assault firearms. These weapons are allowed, under law, to beb l permitted to any law-abiding citizen. For sensible reasons, this shouldn’t be the case. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 18.5% of Americans experience mental illness. While having a mental illness doesn’t guarantee that someone is more dangerous, it’s crucial that more precautions should be taken when issuing firearms to them. As said earlier, every category of a ‘school-shooter, has something to do with a case of mental health issues. Based on it, it’s to be proposed that further background checks be performed to ensure that the receiver was safe to get the weapon. Now, of course, these through background checks should be proposed to all citizens but that seems like a long stretch in our country today. It’s also important to bring attention towards limiting access the public has to military-style firearms, such as the AR-15. The number of people these weapons have killed in just the past couple years bypasses those casualties of other firearms. Restrictions would definitely put a decline in shooting deaths. However, just like any other controversial issue, it won’t be easy to get official action. Lawmakers always hesitate to vote on controversial things, such as laws on background checks and weapon restrictions, because of all the backlash from lobbyists and the public alike. Many believe that intense backgrounds checks invade personal privacy and make it harder for Americans to express their second amendment. As for gun restrictions, that’s completely out of the question for supporters of the second amendment. By liming the types of weapons Americans can buy, they believe they’re being stripped of their rights. Their loud disapproval is made known to state and national governments and that’s what usually delays hearings on these issues. Though it’ll be a bumpy ride, it really is important to look into implementing more mental health awareness in schools and regulations towards gun laws. Actions like these would directly impact these sorts of senseless tragedies. Maybe we’ll see such actions in years to come.