Gun Control and Mental Health
Kaylee Larson
There were fourteen kids in my math class last Friday. In a class that should have had twenty-eight students, why would half the class not show up to school? Not only that but math was not the only class where there was an unmistakable number of students missing, all throughout the day there were students buzzing about all of the absences in their classes. This is because the previous day all everyone talked about was that someone was making gun threats and threatening to shoot up the school. With the abundance of school shootings that fill the media, it is increasingly possible that it could happen to our school if not any school nationwide. When students don’t show up to school because they are scared for their lives, we have a problem. When kids are more stressed about school shooters than they are about school and normal teenage things, we have a problem, and when kids live in fear due to school shootings, we have a problem. Why are school shootings such an issue? Is it because we live in a generation of horrible people that feel that they need to murder students? Yes and no. The gun is only as good as the person behind the trigger. A person in a straight and clear mindset would not shoot up a school, there is absolutely no situation where someone would do that. If someone is going to shoot up the school, they have some serious mental health issues. Mental health problems are on the rise, issues such as anxiety, depression, and countless other mental health issues are at an all-time high. So, it makes since that school shootings are also at an all-time high as well. It is a startling statistic but there is almost one school shooting per day.
Slightly under four million guns are circulating the United States. Even if the government made these guns illegal, there is no way to remove them from circulation. It is simply unrealistic that everyone will simply give up their guns. It also violates citizens current constitutional right to be able to protect themselves with guns. Restricting guns will have little to no effect on the number of school shootings, this is because if someone is willing to shoot up a school, they are most likely going to be willing to do anything to get a gun to carry out the deed. Guns are not always the problem, mental health is. Mental health issues are a chemical imbalance in the brain. They are a very real and a very scary thing. About one in five people are dealing with a mental health issue, and that number is higher than it has ever been before. Psychologists believe that this number has increased so rapidly because of social pressures, constant comparison to others via social media, and the constant need to fit in and be like everyone else. People usually only posts things on social media that will glorify their life and make it seem like they have everything all figured out, which in most cases is the complete opposite. Social media creates a false reality for everyone who view it. When some impressionable people see this version of reality, they are immediately set up to fail and they often fall short of others thus making them feels less than perfect. Anyone can see how this could cause depression, anxiety or any other string of mental illness. Mental illness is not caused solely by social media it is a known fact that it does highly contribute to it. Many things can cause mental illness which is why mental illness has been around forever, while social media has only been around for a couple of years. Mental illness can run in families, can appear through extreme stress, and it can be situational due to the person who suffers from it. Mental health needs to be talked about and dealt with, now more than ever that it has taken the lives of innocent children via school shootings.
So, the problem with gun control isn’t about the guns. The majority of the people who want to ban guns fear the people that would use the guns would harm others. There is no question that those people that want to hurt others using guns are mentally ill. Focusing on treating and educating people on mental health issues is crucial for the future. Since teens are the mass majority suffering in the United States from mental illness it is crucial that high schools implement some sort of mechanism to get students the help that they need. Not only schools but more people in the media need to spread awareness to topic. So instead of the government spending tremendous amounts of money trying to make gun laws and restrict and ban them how about we spend money on the real issue behind guns. Banning guns will do nothing but divide this country more than it already is, but raising awareness to mental health and the effects of it can benefit almost everyone. Chances are you know more people whom suffer from a mental illness than you know people who own or have access to guns. Fixing the problem first starts with fixing the cause and then everything after should be a chain reaction. Helping the people that suffer with mental health issues should decrease the amount of gun related violence and crimes. Creating a safer environment to live all starts with making people more aware of the dangers of mental illness. When a gun related crime happens people always seem to be more caught up in the guns and how we should restrict them, but nobody really says anything about the killer. If we can target people who struggle with mental health issues, then we can help limit the amount of gun violence. The guns are hardly the problem here. Gun control starts with mental health. We as a nation can help eliminate gun violence but first we need to help eliminate mental health issues.
