DAY 18 OF 31 OF THE JULY THINK THEN RETHINK WRITING CHALLENGE
What Do I Think Would Help To Stop Mass Shootings?
A challenge to think about what might cause someone to go that far
When mass murders happen, a lot of people demand reform to access to mental health services. Here’s the problem with that — the vast majority of the people who commit these crimes — are absolutely NOT mentally ill. Not by legal standards, nor by psychological standards. Explain this. Additional access to mental health services would absolutely not stop mass murders. At least not the way people are demanding it be instituted. Can you figure out why? This prompt is almost more of a challenge — but I encourage you to take it on because the more understanding there is of these crimes, the closer society gets to stopping them. How do these crimes happen? Why do these crimes happen? And why is it not a matter of mental health? What factor of mental health could potentially help that people are not seeing? THINK DO NOT RESEARCH.
I’ve had to spend most of the day thinking about this one. I think that the best way to stop mass shootings is to address issues with the family. I think that many of the shootings stem from issues that people have at home. I think it ties to either domestic violence, custody issues, or marriage troubles.
I’m not going to say that it’s the cause of all of the shootings but it feels like it’s a root cause for many. I remember watching some of these and thinking that if some of these people had more support at home or a more stable home situation that they would probably not have done what they did. I feel like these crimes many times are a cry for help.
I don’t think that it’s just an impulsive thing to just one day go and pick up a gun and decide to kill a bunch of people. Sure, there are some people who are psychotic enough to just do that if a switch flips in their heads. I think we really just need to focus on supporting more people with family care and family counseling.
Focusing on maintaining healthy relationships for people will make them less likely to want to commit violent crimes. It’s sad that America is in the state that it’s in at this point. If we actually had our priorities straight, we could give proper care and attention to issues that are more important than the things that we actually do focus on.
Why do we need to spend so much on our military? We don’t even have a fully funded educational system. That also leads to more people who are in financial trouble and many times, financial trouble can lead to crime when not addressed. That’s not to say that everyone who commits a crime is poor but being poor can definitely result in committing a crime. I knew many people in my neighborhood growing up that got desperate enough to commit crimes because of poverty and ended up in jail.
Also, as a society, we should destigmatize therapy more. I had a therapist for years and it helped me so much. I think that family counseling, group therapy, marriage counseling, and so on will definitely be a step in the right direction to heal trauma and conflicts and prevent many crimes, not just mass shootings.
I hope that my thinking on this is correct. I will now go and actually research the root cause of what drives people to mass shootings now. This challenge was definitely an interesting and fun one to think about.
Challenge Community Group: Autistic Widower (“AJ”), Brett Jenae Tomlin, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Trisha Faye, Karen Schwartz, NancyO, Katie Michaelson, Bernie Pullen, Michelle Jimerson Morris, Amy Frances, Julia A. Keirns, Pamela Oglesby, Harry Hogg, Tina, Pat Romito LaPointe, Brandon Ellrich, Misty Rae, Karen Hoffman, Susie Winfield, Vincent Pisano, Marlene Samuels, Ray Day, Randy Pulley, Michael Rhodes, Lu Skerdoo, Pluto Wolnosci, Paula Shablo, Bruce Coulter, Ellen Baker, Leigh-Anne Dennison, Jennifer Marla Pike, Carmen Ballesteros, Patricia Timmermans, Jerry Dwyer, Teisha LeShea, and Ruby Noir
