The Connection Between Gun Violence And Mental Illness In Contemporary Society

Introductory Statement

Introductory Statement: Gun violent has been a persistent social problem particularly in the United States. Consequently, there have been an increased number of deaths related to gun violence and escalating health care cost. Nonetheless, there has been a direct connection between gun violence and mental illness in contemporary society.

Thesis: a high level of violence in the United States has been attributed to increase gun ownership particularly by the stigmatized people or rather people with mental illness.

Summary of main ideas:

• In essence, the issue of firearms, Gun collectives, as well as dialogues regarding gun ownership is often associated with stigma or rather mental illness.
• People with psychiatric disorders are often linked to the issue of violent or rather violent behaviors.
• There has been a historical association between mental illness and the issues related to violence in society due to forced psychiatric interventions.
• Mental illness can predict or rather causes gun violence in society.

Main Idea #1

Claim: In essence, the issue of firearms, Gun collectives, as well as dialogues regarding gun ownership is often associated with stigma or rather mental illness.

Evidence:

• Gun shows have been considered as being problematic and have therefore been an area of debate particularly concerning firearms and violence. Notably, the overall association between firearms as well as violence are not unjustified. Gun collectives have been thought to experience core stigma as well as event stigma. According to research, these people are considered to be core stigmatized and rife with political controversy as well as illegal activities (Blithe & Lanterman, 2017).
• In the United States, there have been reports of gun collectives being linked or rather subjects of repeated event stigma (Blithe & Lanterman, 2017).
• In most cases, mass shooting or individuals particularly mass shootings in public places are mostly attached to gun collectives (Blithe & Lanterman, 2017). In this case, stigmas have been attached to gun collectives.
• The United States tend to have the highest rates of firearms homicides compare to any industrialized democracies across the world. Notably, the issue of a mass shooting is more common in the United States than any other country with a high income and is often committed with guns that are acquired legally (Blithe & Lanterman, 2017).

Significance: The issue of gun collectives has been more entrenched in stigma in the United States particularly in contemporary society. Consequently, there has been a direct link between gun ownership and stigma among individuals in the United States.

Main Idea #2

Claim: People with psychiatric disorders are often linked to the issue of violent or rather violent behaviors.

Evidence:

• People with mental illness are anticipated to have at least 10 to 20 times likelihood of committing suicide than homicide. Additionally, these people are considered to be more likely to be victims of crime (Leyton, 2018).
• According to research people with antisocial as well as related personality disorders have been considered to commonly exhibit socially objectionable behaviors (Leyton, 2018). Some behaviors such as paranoia, depression as well as grandiose traits are mostly seen in those people who are considered to be mass murderers despite the fact that such events being rare in societal settings.

Significance: The increasing numbers of the link between mental illness and violent behavior in the society provide more reasons why there is a need to provide an adequate care particularly to those people who have a mental disorder. To do so, there should be a way in which the level of violence is reduced despite the fact that the rates of homicides are at historic lows in contemporary society.

Main Idea #3

Claim: There has been a historical association between mental illness and the issues related to violence in society due to forced psychiatric interventions.

Evidence:

• There have been various scenarios where psychiatric treatments have been forced on individuals without a full knowledge or rather understanding of their overall consequences as well as side effects (Joseph, 2014). As a result, there have been some personal accounts of coercion, confinement in isolation as well as harmful medical treatments in the society. Notably, the pressure that people with mental illness are forced to undergo lead to various criminal behaviors.
• The overall impact of criminalization, as well as the effect of stigmatization, has been associated with increasing the risk of violence particularly for those people who are diagnosed with mental illness (Joseph, 2014).
• There has been an association between people’s mental health issues and the risk that is related to violence. Notably, this violence is often directed to disproportionately of racial minorities particularly in places where criminalization and forced treatment within the mental health system continue to thrive (Joseph, 2014).

Significance: There has been a direct connection between forced treatment and discrimination of the minority particularly people with mental illness and the increased levels of crimes in the society.

Main Idea #4

Claim: Mental illness can predict or rather causes gun violence in society.

Evidence:

• There have been scenarios where mental illness has contributed to the actions of the shooters as stated in the case of Eric Harris in 1999 at Columbine High School (Metzl & MacLeish, 2015).
• As stated by Torrey when speaking to a national television he claimed that “about half of . . . mass killings are being done by people with severe mental illness, mostly schizophrenia, and if they were being treated they would have been preventable” (p. 241)
• The United State Supreme Court in 2008 had strongly affirmed the right to bear arms by endorsing prohibitions on the gun ownership “by felons and the mentally ill” due to their special likelihood or rather the potential for violence (p. 241).

Significance: The overall connection between gun-related violence and people with mental illness cannot be underestimated in contemporary society. Consequently, there is a need for a lasting solution where the ownership of guns can be limited to only competent people and those that have not indicated signs of mental disorders.  

Conclusion

Restatement of the Argument: Although there are various factors that lead to violence in the society, mental illness is among the causes of increased mass shootings in places such as the United States.

The significance of the Main Points: There has been a direct connection between gun violence and mental illness in various societal settings. Consequently, there is a need to address this ownership of guns to curb the crime.

Concluding Statement: It is imperative that the issues of gun violence be addressed especially by limiting those that own guns particularly the mentally ill people.

References

Blithe, S. J., & Lanterman, J. L. (2017). Camouflaged Collectives: Managing Stigma and Identity at Gun Events. Studies in social justice, 11(1).

Joseph, A. J. (2014). A prescription for violence: The legacy of colonization in contemporary forensic mental health and the production of difference. Critical criminology, 22(2), 273-292.

Leyton, M. (2018). Are people with psychiatric disorders violent?. Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience: JPN, 43(4), 180058-180058.

Metzl, J. M., & MacLeish, K. T. (2015). Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms. American journal of public health, 105(2), 240-24