Guns and Mental Disorders
Gun violence continues to plague the streets of America as more people worry about the ease at which mentally unstable individuals can access firearms. In 2019, the number of gun-related deaths increased by 3% when compared with the past year (Nas). During the year 2019, there were increased shootings within the country such that President Trump had to address the issue. Alarmingly, researchers concluded that a good number of the shooters were mentally unstable individuals. The availability of guns in the United States has been a hotly debated issue over the years as it is a practice that enables hate crimes. Furthermore, these issues spill over to fire-arm registries and the ability to restrict prohibited individuals from possessing a firearm. Loopholes within the system have enabled mentally unsound individuals to buy firearms or continue to have them in their possessions during crises. It is possible to link mental disorders and readily available guns to the random violence that has been witnessed across the country due to the failure of government systems to follow up on eligibility statuses of firearm owners.
One of the ways the availability of guns and mental disorders combine to produce violence is the inability for firearm sellers to confirm eligibility of the buyers. The federal law and state law clearly prohibits the purchase of firearms to people who have been hospitalized or diagnosed with a number of histories regarding to mental health. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) provides a system for firearm dealers to check the status of a client who requires to purchase a firearm. Through running a background check, the NICS avails the information of the buyer stating their eligibility. Sadly, mass shootings continue to prevail as seen during the Virginia Tech Shootings (Pinals et al. 2). Even with systems such as NICS, State governments have failed in following up with institutions that need to update their NICS database. Such failure has formed a huge gap between availability of firearms and mentally unstable individuals thus giving way for random violence against strangers. Since dealers don’t have updated eligibility of clients, there is an increased likelihood of guns being purchased by mentally ill people.
Another reason why gun violence by mentally unstable individuals continues to harm strangers is the inability to remove firearms from individuals when they are first diagnosed (Pinals et al. 3. Today, a good number of people have firearms at their homes. These weapons can be used by individuals to harm themselves or others during period of distress. When personal firearms are not considered as “readily available” weapons then the law is merely overlooking potential gun violence. Some states, but not all, enforce statutes that allow firearm removal from people that are diagnosed with mental health emergencies or those perceived to be a danger to themselves or others. The national gun registry can be used to show the firearms in possession by an individual in distressed and removed from the access of the person through the power of a court of law. However, the inability of some states to enforce such statues enables scenarios that lead to the much feared violence against strangers.
Over the years, guns have contributed to violence within the society, and mentally unstable people have used these firearms to cause harm to others. The year 2019 saw an increase in gun violence as 15,292 people were shot dead and another 29,613 people suffered from nonfatal injuries (Nas). However, not all these shootings were caused by people of unsound mind. While Trump claims that mental disorders are the number one cause of mass shootings, researchers tend to think otherwise. It is true that some of the individuals involved in shootings are mentally unsound but these cases only constitute to about 3% of all the cases (The Washington Post). President Trump went ahead to form a program named SAFEHOME (Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes) that would help manage the gun epidemic going on within the U.S. The SAFEHOME program is said to work with Apple Watches and Amazon Echoes to identify gun violence signs before they happened. Maybe, such approaches will help minimize violence towards strangers by mentally unstable people.
In conclusion, the availability of guns has been enabled by the weak federal and state systems that should restrict firearm possession among people with mental health disorders. These people have then resulted in causing random harm to strangers due to their confused nature. While the government fights to control the selling and buying of firearms through the national registry, there still remains loopholes in the system due to the inability of the state to update records of hospitalized mental cases. In the end, those same people buy the firearms and cause harm to unsuspecting individuals. Furthermore, the slow action of some states on removal of firearms from defendants who exhibit a threat to themselves or others have contributed to the same. It is high time, the federal and state governments work together to curb the rising number of gun violence cases witnessed each year. Controlling mass shootings begins with updating NICS records, following up on defendants, and intervening on gun violence before the cases occur.
Works Cited
Nas, Daniel. “Gun Deaths Inched up in 2019.” 2020. Retrieved from https://www.thetrace.org/2020/01/gun-deaths-2019-increase/
Pinals, Debra A., et al. “Resource document on access to firearms by people with mental disorders.” Behavioral sciences & the law 33.2-3 (2015): 186-194.
The Washington Post. “Trump’s Plan to monitor the mentally ill to curb gun violence is messy and flawed.” 2019. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-plan-to-monitor-the-mentally-ill-to-curb-gun-violence-is-messy-and-flawed/2019/09/14/a942979e-d40a-11e9-86ac-0f250cc91758_story.html
