Mental Health Care Raising Gun Control Concerns

Image result for mental health and gunsThe American Psychiatric Association lists Mental Illness as a health condition that involves a change in our thinking, behaviors and emotions. According to Rana Parekh, M.D., "nearly one in five (19 percent) U.S. adults experience some form of mental illness." Many times, people have no idea that they have a mental illness and proceed through life without ever visiting a doctor or reaching out for help. It's often looked down upon or ashamed of which resists many individuals from receiving action that is often needed. Also, one of the leading factors is that mental health care is not as accessible in the United States as a local gun shop is. Due to not receiving any type of care, these individuals could lead to negative actions towards oneself or the public. 
Over the years, many shootings have been common in public areas such as theatres, schools and churches. Many of these shootings are linked with the shooter being seen as having a "mental illnesses" when it comes to  be a fairly white individual. Minorities, unfortunately on the other hand are labeled as either "terrorists or criminals" which has been a quite controversial topic on the news and even on social media platforms. Our race is often seemed to speak for ourselves whenever there is a bad situation. Stereotypes release, and the labels come out. The following case about Nikolas Cruz had further raised concerns in people's eyes. 
On February 14th, 2018 one of the many school shootings in The United States had taken place in Florida. The shooter had troubled through a difficult childhood watching his father die in front of his eyes at the age of five and later losing his mother to pneumonia. According to The Washington Post, neighbors often claimed they were "scared of him." Police were often in the area due to calls being frequently made to their house because of his aggressive behavior towards animals and posts of strange or odd Instagram pictures of guns and lethal weapons. 

 Cruz definitely did not have the best of childhoods but he did take many of the other kids childhoods away after shooting at seventeen kids. The issue is that, Cruz had a great home with his adoptive mother but she never suspected he might be mentally ill. Neighbors complained, police complained kids at school complained as well but.. the mother never realized what he was doing. Cruz never received the care that he needed at an early age to help compensate whatever he had been going through at the time. This is when at last, Cruz broke out and took his anger out on innocent kids raising voices of where guns stand and mental illness stands in present day America. 

Comments

  1. Julie Quinn TACApril 7, 2018 at 11:56 AM

    You nailed the core of the issue, I think, this week! The issue is that white men generally get the "mental illness" label while those of color do not. Is this some sort of subliminal racism at play--that white people cannot really commit a mass shooting without some sort of explanation why?
    I agree with you that not everyone gets a diagnosis of mental illness, but then again, millions of people are diagnosed with mental illnesses and many have access to guns but don't use them for violence.
    So maybe the question should be: why bring up mental illness to begin with? Why not make the connection between calls to police and intervention activities?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlbertoooApril 8, 2018 at 3:56 PM

    Very informational post. Good job on adding details and that picture in your post. It strengthens you article because its allows for people to get the point of what the author of the drawing is trying to convey. The example of the person who shot up the school was adding to your points.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownApril 8, 2018 at 4:43 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownApril 8, 2018 at 4:48 PM

    Good examples, very informative as well. I liked how you included a picture along with your blog. Your thoughts and how you put it into writing was good.

    ReplyDelete

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